BatchPCB announced Monday their Marketplace service, where designers can upload "their" pcb designs to be purchased by others at prices set by the designer. These prices are very attractive.
To me, the open-source kitbiz is only successful in that pcb fabrication can be expensive. The kitbiz offers the customer a far cheaper and time-saving option than having to submit gerber files to a fab house and having to purchase multiple pcb's at bulk prices. The customer of the kitbiz saves money by only having to purchase a single pcb in a kit, although paying markup prices for it and components. But they do get the benefit of the one-stop shop.
Now however the BatchPCB Marketplace offers potential customers pcb's at individual prices. This coupled with purchasing parts directly from Digikey now makes the kitbiz the more expensive option.
Furthermore, I have a feeling a lot of open-source kitbiz sellers will find their pcb designs in the Marketplace, slightly modified and for sale by someone else. While decried as lame, this is legal in the open-source hardware realm.
Certainly this is all very good for the consumer but it seems will affect the kitbiz.