I'd pay $200-250 to get one. It seems very similar to other early-adopter technology. CD Burners were over a grand and the blanks were $20 back around 1995/96. Now you can get a DVD-RW/CD-RW combo drive for $30-50 and the blanks run in the pennies per disc range. So, once the companies go through the process, work out the bugs, and get a functional, spec-complete item, it's a matter of volume to get the costs down.

From what Doug said, it sounds very much as if the costs are not in the actual physical production, but rather in R&D, QA, Lawyers, Regulation certification, and the like. But once they work through that, the more people that buy them the cheaper they get.

Just like Blu-Ray/HD-DVD, the early adopters are the ones who pay the price to get the item to market. As the item goes mass-market, those initial costs really don't change, and the physical production costs are likely to drop. I mean, in principle, there's not a lot going on with these devices. Once they get past the sunk costs, I'm sure costs will go down.

And as for everyone worrying about abuse ala 911 system, $250,000 is a pretty steep fine. Plus, nobody pays $500 all at once just to have access to 911. They pay a tiny fraction of that cost on a monthly bill, and it's available on every phone, including anonymous payphones. And the fee/crime is much less for 911 pranking or inappropriate use. 911 is MUCH more likely to be abused because of those differences. Plus, personal responsibility means that I only care about the price dropping because I know that *I* will be responsible. I hope that the survivorman type shows and recent hicking/driving deaths in the news get more folks preparing themselves, and buying more of this type of gear. It only serves to move the production from niche to mass markets, lowering prices and presumably improving product design.