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1. 🇳🇴 Thor — backup account (thorthenorseman@octodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 31-Oct-2018 11:52:12 EDT 🇳🇴 Thor — backup account

   Data sheets for Chinese electronics components are rather sparse on details. They're so sparse that I'm not sure how they manage to incorporate their components in their designs. I suspect that Chinese engineers either do a lot of prototyping to discover specifics about the parts, or there is a great deal of face-to-face communication going on behind the scenes.

   1. 🇳🇴 Thor — backup account (thorthenorseman@octodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 31-Oct-2018 11:55:46 EDT 🇳🇴 Thor — backup account

      in reply to

      They don't seem keen to share information on the Internet, and most electronics engineers from the west just kind of shrug if you ask them questions about these components.

      If try to use parts that were designed in Europe or the United States, the price goes up considerably, and the design is no longer cost-effective. Also, in a lot of cases, you won't even find equivalent parts, because the products they are used in are all designed in China.

      1. 🇳🇴 Thor — backup account (thorthenorseman@octodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 31-Oct-2018 12:06:17 EDT 🇳🇴 Thor — backup account

         in reply to

         IMHO, the Chinese seem to possess all the infrastructure, technology and know-how required to design the products that consumers find attractive. A good deal of it originated with large American and Japanese corporations who outsourced their manufacturing to China, and these companies have full access to the Chinese ecosystem, while individuals and small businesses in the US and Europe do not.

         1. 🇳🇴 Thor — backup account (thorthenorseman@octodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 31-Oct-2018 12:14:27 EDT 🇳🇴 Thor — backup account

            in reply to

            You thus end up with a situation where a few large global companies hold the competitive edge, together with an underforest of minor Chinese players, who gain access to this information through osmosis. Any small Chinese player can launch an attractive product using the latest chips at a relatively low risk, while players in the US and Europe struggle to fund their often inferior products on Kickstarter and the like, only to get outcompeted by a low-effort Chinese clone of their product.