[chbot] Heard about the FTDI caper?

[Mark Atherton]

Well observed, and well said !

At 09:44 p.m. 27/10/2014, you wrote:
>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