Why are routers getting so expensive?

[azazel1024]

I guess my yardstick of comparison is between a decent budget PC and a router.

Back when the WRT54G was new (I have a v1 I inherited), I think it either cost $79.99, or around $120, I don't remember exactly. It was on sale at Staples. It was cutting-edge at the time.

My PC, a custom job, was probably worth $400-500 in parts.

It's kind of like comparing the price of cereal, as compared to the consumer price index. When it rises faster, you get suspicious. That's what is happening in routers these days.

I mean, when you can get quad-core Atom 64-bit tablets, with 2GB RAM, and 32GB storage, and wireless AC, for under $150, and that includes a touch-screen LCD, why are lesser dual-core ARM routers, with 128 or 256MB RAM and storage, and no touch-screen, selling for over $300? It's patently obvious that mfgs are price-gouging, based on "fashion".

That WRT54G had a single radio in it and a single radio chain.

A current high end 11ac router has 2/3 radios in it and 3-4 chains for each radio. That is a LOT of extra components.

So it is NOT apples to apples. That would be like looking at a 32ft motor boat and wondering why you paid $20k for a new one with a nice outboard 150hp engine on it in 2002, but now a "similar" 32ft motor boat has 3 250hp turbocharged outboard engines on it in 2014 and is $30k.

Oh, I don't know, it has a lot more hardware on it and inflation.

Just using the CPI inflation calculator, $120 in 2002 is $159 today.

Guess how much most brand new, fairly high end AC1750 routers are? $140-200, and they have a LOT more hardware in them. Sure the BESTEST of the bestest routers are in the $300 range, but those also have "nifty" tricks that no one else is doing yet, like 4 radio streams, MU:MIMO or 3 radios. That certainly costs more to both be the most bleeding edge...and more stuff in it which costs the manufacturers more.

Sure, I am not going to pay $300 for a new router. At the same time, reasonably high end AC1200-1750 routers aren't much more (if anymore, look at the TP-Link Archer c7 AC1750 router, which can often be found for $80 now) than what a high end 11n or 11g router was when you adjust for inflation 5-12 years ago.

 

[serpretetsky]

All of the newest AC routers are around $300 or more. At least, last time I went to Newegg, and clicked on Wireless routers, and it was sorted on "Featured".

If you scroll down you see a good chunk of cheaper routers. I think you are over exaggerating.

While that is true, what about Moore's Law? In 6 years, that's three DOUBLINGs of processor speed and memory size. So are today's routers, more or less than 8X faster than 6-year-old routers? Do they have 8X the RAM and storage? Do they cost the same for 8X performance?

What if they ARE failing to keep up with Moore's law? So what? Why are you basing anything on Moore's law?

Do you think the core i7 4770k is 8 times faster than the core i7 920? Do you think it's even twice as fast?

Did you know that Moore's law actually does not refer to performance, but to transistor count? The intel core i7 4770k has roughly 1.5 billion transistors vs the 730 million of the core i7 920. Is that 8 times greater?

Moore's law is not some sort of universal law that cannot be broken. It's a mildly amusing observation that has already failed to keep true since 2008.

 

[Engineer]

You guys don't visit the hot deals forum (or places like SlickDeals or Fatwallet) very often. What you are missing is that routers of all varieties dropped like a rock just a short while ago (about a year) and now they have all risen higher and have not dropped (except the cheap stuff that can't be modified at all and have a crappy / broken firmware).

Like I said, dual band Belkin routers with gigabit ports for $15.00 each not too long ago. Running Tomato flawlessly as I type this. Wish I would have picked up more than two.

 

[Cerb]

TBH, that stands to reason. I'm usually looking for a router to spec a price, or buy because someone's blew up, or has stock firmware that can't work for what they need (like changing port #s when forwarding ports, which I've found a surprisingly common lacking feature). So, not much waiting for a good deal to come along. I do a quick check for deals in all cases, but any of them are time sensitive.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

Routers are getting more expensive because we're seeing the creation/expansion of a super high end niche that simply did not exist ~10 years ago.

We're seeing this new niche because of all the smart devices that exist now (phones/tablets/consoles/TVs/etc) that necessitate more and more powerful routers

Sure, $300 is getting up there to where one might want to consider a DIY router, but speccing out a DIY router and making sure you have quality/compact components and enough quality wireless APs isn't going to be particularly cheap either (and a whole lot less convenient).

 

[Engineer]

Routers are getting more expensive because we're seeing the creation/expansion of a super high end niche that simply did not exist ~10 years ago.

We're seeing this new niche because of all the smart devices that exist now (phones/tablets/consoles/TVs/etc) that necessitate more and more powerful routers

Sure, $300 is getting up there to where one might want to consider a DIY router, but speccing out a DIY router and making sure you have quality/compact components and enough quality wireless APs isn't going to be particularly cheap either (and a whole lot less convenient).

Or you simply buy a decent hardware, cheap router that accepts DD-WRT, Tomato, Merlin or OpenWRT and put one of those on there and get a full featured, stable router for a fraction of what you would normally pay.

The use of ARM processors in the latest generation of routers has slowed the development of such routers and software as well as caused prices to rise (not to mention larger flash, more cores, more transmitters, etc). Still, even the current older generation of routers has stagnated or drifted up in general. There used to be cheap routers every other day (larry knows this hence the OP) that could be bought and made fully functional and stable via 3rd party firmware. Those deals have dropped dramatically and even when you find such a router, the deal of today isn't nearly what it was just a year ago.

 

[bradly1101]

I just dropped $280 on this one and am hoping it stays reliable. So many reviews of these latest routers say that after a while they lose connections easily. [fingers crossed...]

 

[Engineer]

If this router from TMobile (rebranded Asus RT-AC68U) ends up being flashable back to the original Asus firmware (and then to Merlin, Tomato, etc), it will be a 'current' steal for $99 (plus shipping/tax) or less for TMobile customers ($25 deposit or even free from some but must return it upon ending TMobile service - If you pay the $99, it's yours).

Excellent review from CNet (over 500Mbps on the AC side).

http://slickdeals.net/f/7193262-t-m...uter-by-asus-free-for-postpaid-25-deposit?v=1

 

[VirtualLarry]

Yeah, but it's going to be another month before I have any free money to think about picking up one of those T-Mobile AC68U routers. I am a T-Mobile customer too, but I'm thinking that they are going to be sold out by next month.

Does anyone remember, the WRT54G-TM? Similar idea, it was for WiFi calling.

 

[Engineer]

Does anyone remember, the WRT54G-TM? Similar idea, it was for WiFi calling.

Yes, I got one of them for $5.00. Had double the ram and double the flash of a regular WRT54G

 

[VirtualLarry]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-555-_-Product

Well, I went and picked up one of these (Netgear R6100). Seems pretty solid so far. I don't have any 802.11ac adapters to test the AC performance. Worst part of this router is the 10/100 wired ports. Seems like a semi-pointless design.

Waiting for a DD-WRT to emerge for it sometime in maybe a year or so. (Atheros, 128MB flash and RAM. Hardware seems solid.)

 

[Eric1987]

I have an Archer c7 v2 I got for 90 bucks from newegg. On my phone I was getting 116mbps on the connection I pay only for 100mbps. So yeah even the cheaper AC routers are monsters.

 

[evident]

getting one of those tmo routers shipped to me today. excited to try it out!

 

[Zargon]

I guess my yardstick of comparison is between a decent budget PC and a router.

Back when the WRT54G was new (I have a v1 I inherited), I think it either cost $79.99, or around $120, I don't remember exactly. It was on sale at Staples. It was cutting-edge at the time.

My PC, a custom job, was probably worth $400-500 in parts.

It's kind of like comparing the price of cereal, as compared to the consumer price index. When it rises faster, you get suspicious. That's what is happening in routers these days.

I mean, when you can get quad-core Atom 64-bit tablets, with 2GB RAM, and 32GB storage, and wireless AC, for under $150, and that includes a touch-screen LCD, why are lesser dual-core ARM routers, with 128 or 256MB RAM and storage, and no touch-screen, selling for over $300? It's patently obvious that mfgs are price-gouging, based on "fashion".

the ac in your tablet(really? there are ac tablets already?) is much much cheaper than whats going in a router, less radios as well

 

[Flapdrol1337]

If you want a top of the line router you'll have to pay for it.

If you just want a functional cheap router get that. There are many available like the TL-WR1043ND, which is 40,- eu, has 4 gigabit ethernet ports, wireless N and is a much faster router than the wrt54g.

 

[easp]

Because manufacturers have figured how to get some people to pay more money than they used to. They used to just sell apples and kiwi, now they sell apples, and kiwi, and oranges, and grapefruit, and watermelons... You are comparing apples to watermelons.

If you want to compare apples to apples, try comparing Apple Airport Extremes to Apple Airport Extremes. Current list price of an Airport Extreme with 802.11ac? $199. List price of the original 802.11g airport extreme? $199!

Now, people will complain about Apple's high prices and middling specs, but thats missing the point, which is Apple keeps its product line nice and simple and tends to adopt new networking tech at about the same point in its maturity curve, which means that its really easy to compare the price equivalent "premium" consumer routers across generations over more than a decade.

If anything has changed in the past decade, its that there are more manufacturers pushing more bleeding edge hardware at early adopters at even higher price points than there were 10 years ago. If that is indeed the case, its probably because that these days, most people are perfectly well served by a cheap router, or a router they bought 5 years ago, and so the manufactures have focused a lot of effort on maximizing revenue from the tiny portion of the market that upgrades their routers frequently, and is willing to spend $200+ to do it.

That sure ain't me. I can't bring myself to by a refurb Airport Extreme, despite the fact that they have a reputation as solid, capable routers, and we are pretty much an Apple household in most other aspects of computing. I'm sure as hell not spending $250+ on some ridiculous frankenrouter.

 

[VirtualLarry]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833156469

AC750 router (non-gigabit) for $24. Planning on getting one, maybe returning my $96 R6100 if it suffices.

 

[EvaCarey]

TPLink do various cheap routers. I've used a few, and they've been fine. The network at work's internet runs through a £20 TPLink ADSL Router/Modem - it's more reliable than the BT Business Hub, and we don't use wireless, so the little TPLink is ideal.