http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3663089/

A few months ago, the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) updated their analysis of the cost of sequencing and, for the first time since records began, it got more expensive (Figure ​(Figure1).1). You know the graph, the one which looks like the profile of an aqua-park waterslide, a gradual incline followed by a precipitous drop as next generation sequencing kicks in. Well, now the waterslide ends with a treacherous upward flick! We have become so comfortable in the knowledge that DNA sequencing reduces in cost at a rate that makes each run cheaper than the last, that some of the scientific community are in denial. I have even seen people present this graph at meetings and explain how sequencing is getting cheaper every day despite the fact they are standing in front of a 10 foot PowerPoint slide showing clearly that this is not true. In fact, the cost of sequencing a human genome increased by $717 (an increase of 12%) between April 2012 and October 2012. This month the new figures showed that the price fell again, but the point remains - you can forget Moore's law! Some of you will think this merely means you need to replace the opening slide in your PowerPoint deck and tone down some of the rhetoric around $10 human genomes and the advent of free sequencing. I, however, think that the long-term ramifications may be more profound...'But...', I hear you scream, '...this is a temporary blip. Soon we will be saved by new cool technology that will plug into my laptop and sequence a genome for $10 in an hour'. In reality, is this just something we simply want to believe? There really is no reason to think that sequencing methodology is about to undergo a revolution in the near future. I am always amazed at the self-inflicted hype that follows any hint of a story where some company has come across a new way of sequencing that is going to turn all our Illumina kits into oversized doorstops. Often this comes not from the companies themselves but the scientists who are so desperate to buy them. The hype is usually followed by hyper-critical twitter and blog commentaries when the machine in question does not appear to do what we want it to (see this revealing interview with Oxford Nanopore's Clive Brown), in a cycle that has repeated itself at least three times in the last 5 years. I begin to wonder why we don't learn from history.

http://biomickwatson.wordpress.com/2013/05/15/a-pedantic-look-at-the-cost-of-sequencing/

This graph may or may not tell a different story. The story is that yes, sequencing costs are coming down; but since late 2007, early 2008 the rate of change of that reduction has been following an upwards trend i.e. over time, the reduction in cost from one period to the next has been increasing.

http://biomickwatson.wordpress.com/2013/06/18/the-1000-myth/

I’m going to try and lay this out in a completely technology neutral way, though I will have to mention different sequencing technologies at some point. However, I am pretty convinced of this one fact: there is not a single sequencing technology out today that can deliver 30X of a human genome for anywhere near $1000....None of the current sequencing companies can deliver 30x of a human genome for less than $1000 reagent costs (using list prices) Yes, that’s right – even ignoring points 2-5, even just buying reagents, the cost is greater than $1000 for a 30x human genome. Now, it’s possible Broad, BGI, Sanger etc can get below $1000 for the reagents due to sheer economies of scale and special deals they have with sequencing companies – but then remember they have to add in those extra charges (2-5) above. Obviously, Illumina don’t charge themselves list price for reagents, and nor do LifeTech, so it’s possible that they themselves can sequence 30x human genomes and just pay whatever it costs to make the reagents and build the machines; but this is not reality and it’s not really how sequencing is done today.

http://biomickwatson.wordpress.com/2013/06/18/the-1000-myth/#comment-2031

In my recent talk at the NIH symposium to mark the 10th anniversary of the HGP: http://bit.ly/KDHGP10 … I quoted a personal communication from Illumina CSO David Bentley, who says that in batch mode, the HiSeq can currently sequence five human genomes (presumably to 30x or higher) for a reagents list price of $25,000 — or $5,000/genome. With negotiated discounts (or if you want to estimate the wholesale cost), take 1/3 or 1/2 of that figure. So for what it’s worth, we might be edging close to the $2,500 genome, but that’s as good as it gets for now.

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/Jun/19/1000-genome-mirage/2/?#article-copy

"He's right," Topol said. "If you get a bunch of genomes done at Illumina, you can get 'em for $2,500 each -- today." But in 2004, Topol said, sequencing a human genome cost $28.7 million. "Now we already have a 99.8 percent plus price reduction," Topol said. "We don't have that much further to go to get from $2,500 to $1,000. Most everyone would forecast that in a couple of years we will get to that number, with deep coverage of 40-fold, so it's accurate. I think it's clearly within reach now." "And I want to take it a step further," Topol said. "It's going to go well below $1,000 a genome in the future."...Topol agreed with Watson's take on the PeerJ statement [$100]. "That's a little far-fetched," he said. But incremental progress in getting the price lower once that $1,000 mark has been reached will continue.