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Yup - everyone rolling around in a Veyron is an Audi-group influencer 
Edit: it is true that a more expensive product often has a greater apparent margin, but if it doesn’t sell in sufficient volume, the unit economics won’t work out. I suspect that Erica is close to break even on the Syntrx, but probably makes it up in the modules and smaller desktop units. The Models are likely cash-cows for Elektron, with the Digis doing OK, and the big boxes much more marginal. Particularly given the crazy cost of shipping in the last few years.
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…oooo…oooo…we’re deep in off topic terretory by now…
ot’s might have an actual assembly line, since they’re outsourced to poland these days…
i hardly doubt any other products than the syntakt and mayyybe the other two digiformats are in actual assemble mode in sweden at the moment…
look at analog mk2’s…totally different design…lot’s of xtra parts…for each of them…
that’s lot’s of xtra effort in assembling, lot’s of xtra investments and logistics…
therefor i hardly doubt they get actually “made” at the moment…
all those we can buy right now come from simply still in stock…
any assembly line is a logistical nightmare…
if u keep it “simple” u can assemble way more units with the same amount of staff…
and there was a time, when they came up way more frequenty with new machine concepts…
and it ended almost in an overstrech overkill, to still be able to guarantee some kind of made in europe…
the low price segment approach with the models did not pay off as expected, once closely compared to the efforts for their pre investment needed and realizing their after amount of totally different service workflows…
be there to be square…the digi format is a no brainer…simple rock solid metal chassis while still havin’ a top quality boutique fair…
just a few screws to open them…pretty much all the same buttons, parts selections, same basic board and chip concepts…not too low…not too high in final marketprice placement vs profit margins…
the former mid price segment has enough pro arguments to become their new standard…
and to be recognized as what they remain to be…hi class professional instruments…with a guarantee to stay fresh for years to come via good firmware updates…
staying close to that, makes it possible to stay most effectively small as a company, provide further on solid quality AND play big at the same time, in the overall competition battle of music hardware brands…
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Too much answering characters for that simple solution:
All AR / A4 are definitively perfect. Only heretic ones don’t understand but they will burn. 
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Isn’t the biggest cost the initial R&D and Design? Especially for ground breaking instruments and class leading design like this.
Meaning the longer they can sell a unit the larger the profit?
Also, not sure I would call it a luxury product, if you compare the price range with things line guitars, DJ gear, computers etc.
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That seems likely, assuming that manufacturing costs stay reasonable. If key parts become expensive or unobtanium, then production could theoretically exceed the wholesale sale price. Also, it is better to focus on the total number of units sold rather than duration. 10k units in a year is better than 1k units per year over 10 years because in the 1k case you either need to warehouse 9k units for 9 years (which isn’t free) or you need to keep the manufacturing line open for a decade, which won’t be cheap either.
I’m not sure if the “luxury” distinction is meaningful, but a live musician could use an old $300 Windows laptop running Ableton instead, or even just spin records / mp3s. That doesn’t tell us much about the profitability of Elektron boxes, but might give us insight into demand and market dynamics.
“Boutique” feels like a more useful term to me. It implies a low volume product where amortized costs like R&D and marketing are a significant fraction of the sale price. Compare to a high volume Behringer product like the UCA-222 or a budget cell phone, where those costs could be in the cents / fraction of a Euro range.
Since we are talking about an update to the Rytm, we are talking about additional engineering spend which will drop the net profitability of the product, unless it can generate sufficient additional unit sales to overcome that cost.
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…r & d ?..for research and design ?
that’s more the fun part, than the cost part in such a “small” company…
developer hours and assembly logistic/service/work hours are the main costs…especially in europe…even given the fact that many of the parts might come from elsewhere…
and i’m pretty confident, that no additional 2nd or 3rd lfo and some further little tweaks or even new machines on an so far so good device like rytm would push any new sales in reasonable dimensions…it would “only” further satisfy those who already have it in use…
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What counts as R&D vs production engineering and whether it’s fun or not isn’t terribly relevant here. What work you can legally allocate to what accounting cost center and whether or not you need to compensate founders (and what a founder even is) will depend on jurisdiction. In the US, it’s common for founders to not pay themselves or deeply underpay themselves. Perhaps not if you are Adam Neumann, but we know how that worked out.
I imagine (but don’t know) that a small builder like DinSync don’t pay themself a salary, but take what is left after they sell parts and kits and finished units. Elektron likely has to account for all of their costs. But DinSync should consider the opportunity cost of making fun techno toys vs. working for Google / Apple / Meta on something like spatial audio hardware, which would almost certainly be within his skillset and almost certainly pay vastly more than he can pay himself.
Also, don’t forget marketing costs. As an engineer myself, I’m used to downplaying the role of marketing (which is dumb and bad, but we do it anyway). But graphics on boxes costs money, influencers and ads cost money, and market research costs money.
Seems likely to me, but that’s actually a marketing question and would take time and effort to answer.
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Sustaining engineering / tech debt is rarely the fun part over R&D and prototypes for not-yet-launched devices 
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A lot of speculation in this thread, would be very interesting to hear from Elektron staff or similar. Do Elektron staff ever engage with this forum?
Before the Machinedrum and Monomachine were discontinued, did they give any advanced notice? Like ‘this will be the final firmware update before production ends’ ?
Elektron is more than a few employee company and do not actively share roadmaps, sales data, or any other proprietary gossip
I believe employees talk about the products, occasional bugs, and workflow but accounting and timelines is beyond what anyone is authorized to share with the public, even for funses.
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My questions are more inline with the OP, not so much abut the specifics of accounting and sales, but about the possibility of future updates and the potential limitations of the hardware
Is this the popcorn thread? Can someone tell me where the bathroom is?
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Now we are in trouble - a real hardware guy finally showed up 
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I was just trying to find the bathroom, not sure if I have time to get into all of this right now
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…monomachine was still in actual stock when the dark trinity became THE thing…
…but got discontinued shortly after…and no, no final update calls upfront…but the anouncement…now or never…last call, last chance to grab a mnm before we call it a day…
a few weeks later, that was it…and mnm 2nd hand pricetags started to reach for the clouds…
guess, we gonna see the exact same thing happen to the mk2’s…
another chapter soon to end…
and nope…i would not bet on further firmware updates for them…
they are what they are…complex and versatile music instruments…pretty exclusive and damned good looking…especially in retro black…
love my a4mk1 forever…but one day, i gonna catch a black 2nd hand mk2 version of it for sure…
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Yes. But I’d be very surprised if they commented in this thread. It’s too close to revealing business information which they’d want to keep private.
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I’ve bought mine just 4 weeks ago 
I bought my MNM after it was discontinued, and between my purchase of a Mk1 OT and Mk1 A4. I didn’t see prices above what I paid for the MnM until 2020. I wasn’t watching obsessively, so the climb could have started in ‘19 or ‘18, but there were quite a few years when you could buy a Mk2 +Drive MnM in mint condition for less than $1k USD.
This was all the Sophie effect
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