Why tout a demo board nobody can buy?
Marketing types are dying to talk to people, go to lunch, and network. Engineers, on the other hand, want to crawl into a corner with some hardware and be alone.
By Paul Rako, Technical Editor -- EDN, October 2, 2008
Recently, my buddy Dave was trying to make a remote-control airplane that would transmit high-definition video to the operator on the ground. Because he wanted to use the video in real time to control the plane, he needed a system with minimal latency. This requirement caused Dave to consider systems that transmit uncompressed video. Dave had been exploring a lot of technologies, and one that caught his eye was a chip set from Amimon. The chip set transmits high-definition video as a 40-MHz-wide signal in the 5.8-GHz ISM (industrial/scientific/medical) band. The company targets this chip set for use in consumer electronics because every TV and output device, including DVD players and set-top boxes, can handle uncompressed video.
Amimon’s Web site lists not only the chip set, but also both a module and a demo board. Dave contacted the company regarding the price of the demo board, but the company refused to provide it. I then wrote to the company and asked the price. The company’s public-relations agency responded: “There is no set pricing for the development kits; it depends on vendor needs.” Dave needed a free one but realized that he couldn’t qualify for a free sample because he was just at the hobby stage.
Weeks later, Dave e-mailed me. “I got an e-mail reply from Amimon,” he wrote, stating that he had received the same response as the one I had received. “They asked 'What would be the cooperation model with Amimon?’ Huh? There must be some supersecret marketing-indoctrination cult … that screws up people’s minds so completely that they cannot speak in plain English. Put the darned development kit on Digi-Key for $800, and I’ll buy it!” He went on to point out that many companies, including National Semiconductor, Linear Technology, Fairchild, Texas Instruments, and Analog Devices, all put their demo boards up for sale through distributors such as Digi-Key. “I’m dreaming of a day,” he continued, “when 'call for pricing’ and 'contact your local rep’ will be banned from industrial suppliers’ Web sites.”
|
I believe that all this turmoil probably derives from the fact that marketing types and engineers speak different languages. Marketing types are dying to talk to people, go to lunch, and network. Engineers, on the other hand, want to crawl into a corner with some hardware and be alone. Industrial suppliers Digi-Key, Mouser, Newark, and Jameco have made things a lot better than they were a decade ago, though, when most manufacturers insisted that you contact the factory for samples, and the big distributors only wanted to sell you a reel of 4000 parts.
The marketing types are trying to uncover the next high-volume-sales opportunity so that they can schmooze with you and beat their competitors. When engineers are producing prototypes, however, they have neither the time nor the inclination for all this socializing. The last system board I designed, a point-of-sale terminal, had 100 parts and 20 ICs. If every manufacturer had required me to call and undergo qualification just to get two bucks’ worth of samples, it would have taken a month. With only two months to design and build the whole product, this approach would have been unfeasible.
How about you? Do you hate the fact that manufacturers won’t give you a price and don’t sell small quantities through distribution? Sound off here.
Contact me at paul.rako@edn.com.
-
I have to say I have been frustrated by the same problems many times over the years (18+years as an engineer). I would also like to add the matter of websites requiring one to give a bunch of information just to download a datasheet. If a company wants to sell their product do what some companies did in the 80's and early 90's; give away the darned development kits (at cost) with samples and support. Now I'm not completely oblivious to the fact that this can be a risk, but some of those companies did very well by it.
At the very least don't make me give up all my personal information registering on the website just to force me to talk to a sale person who can not discuss the details of the part. Then have my inbox flooded with advertisements of new products that do not interest me or my customers at the time. (I have Electronic Products magazine for that. And by the way the team there does a fine job of keeping me up to date on the new technology)
dg - 2008-22-12 08:05:00 PST -
Paul,
If all the chip makers want to sell there stuff
then it needs to be made available to the little
guy who needs a few pieces to get off the ground.
Who knows that same person might need 100,000 pieces
next year. Your are on target!
Mark Preddy - 2008-4-11 18:04:00 PST -
This is true. I have lot of examples of this behavior from several Companies. In 2004 I wasted to much time until to find price for a customized transformer for a Fly-back switching supply design. To many companies asked me to talk by phone, but not for technical questions, because I sent a detailed data regarding transformer construction.
After one week, and very short of time, I decided send an e-mail to a India based company. These guys sent me the price and three prototype in for days. What happen with the American Electronic market?
Mario Marcoccia - 2008-20-10 10:00:00 PDT -
I couldn't agree more. Even worse is some of the ridiculous registration procedures you need to go through just to download a data sheet. This has kept me from using a company's products, simply because it wasn't worth the hassle.
Dan - 2008-20-10 06:10:00 PDT -
That's what I bothered most. Great ideas usually ceased to nothing. I really hate it!!
James Lai - 2008-19-10 20:14:00 PDT
