[chbot] Heard about the FTDI caper?

[Michael Field]

FTDI must be desperate - it appears that their only competitive 
advantage over the clone parts are that they own the PID:VID combination 
and can therefore control the default driver.

If somebody else has reverse-engineered and reimplemented their IP in 
their own custom silicon, allowing it to be 'good enough' to be a 
lower-cost drop in replacement, then their product has become a 
commodity. The only long-term way to beat the clones is either to price 
them off of the market, or win on quality - and bricking 'clone' parts 
does not equal quality of your product.

If they weren't overpriced for what they delivered, then nobody would 
have put the energy into making a clone.  As it stands the makers of the 
clones will only need to get their own PID:VID, and then you have an 
equal part in the market, that is significantly cheaper, and is no 
longer a 'grey/black market' part.

Are the FTDI parts overpriced? In 1000x quantity on Digikey, a FT232 is 
$3.29 for comparison you could get a PIC18F14K50 microcontroller with a 
USB 2.0 interface for under $1.60 direct in 1000x quantity direct from 
Microchip.

If they just halved the price of the parts then they could have killed 
the clones overnight....

Mike