[Coco] Something of interest to the design people here

[Louis Ciotti]

This is where a good sales rep comes in.  At work we often get samples that
way for bleeding edge products.

On Sat, Oct 25, 2014 at 6:32 AM, Mark McDougall <msmcdoug at iinet.net.au>
wrote:

> On 25/10/2014 9:00 PM, Gene Heskett wrote:
>
>  TV engineering is a funny business, and I have in my time designed and
>> built several very unique things to do a labor saving job at a tv station.
>> Unfortunately, the market for such an individual device is also limited to
>> other tv stations facing similar technical problems, which is a roundabout
>> way of saying that to sell even 100 such devices is a resounding success.
>>
>
> I'm in a very similar position myself. I have a 'contract R&D engineering'
> company and we often design and develop prototypes for customers. That
> could mean as little as a single device. What's more, as far as the
> 'estimated production quantity per annum' that vendors and distributors are
> so keen to extract from you are concerned, we're completely at the behest
> of the client. If we're designing a specialised or niche product,
> production quantities could be measured in tens per annum. With these
> numbers it's very difficult to get any type of design support.
>
> Fortunately for devices that aren't bleeding-edge, Digikey and Element 14
> usually come to the rescue. Where we're stuck is when we want to use a
> device that is new to the market. So generally, no samples, no inclusion in
> our design. Of course such small volumes means nothing to the vendors...
>
> ...but then there's the scenario where I want to use a bleeding-edge
> device in a prototype for a client in a niche market and a do get samples.
> No pay day for the vendor then, but what if our next client comes along
> with a commodity market design and we have the opportunity to use the same
> - tried and tested by us - device? They need to look at the bigger picture.
>
> I was doing a small design years ago and was looking at using a particular
> analogue video chip that looked like it was exactly what I needed. Not only
> could I not get samples, I couldn't even get the data sheet for it, unless
> I was projecting to ship hundreds of thousands of units.
>
> It's an unfortunate trend that I fear will only continue.
>
> Regards,
>
> --
> |              Mark McDougall                | "Electrical Engineers do it
> |  <http://members.iinet.net.au/~msmcdoug>   |   with less resistance!"
>
>
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