8 Jan 2016
China
It seems odd to me that the Chinese haven't taken the amateur radio
market by storm already. When the Chinese do wake up I think ICOM, Yaesu
and Kenwood will struggle. It would not surprise me if at least one
goes bankrupt. They are "swimming against the tide". China is currently a low cost assembly area and even Apple take advantage of this. So far, the Chinese products we have seen have not been a match for the Japanese, but surely this will change? Volumes are not the issue as some variants are made in decent numbers. No, the Japanese amateur manufacturers need to wake up fast or they will go under.
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3 comments:
I buy a reasonable amount of non-amateur electronic stuff from China, Roger, and it is interesting. Component quality seems not to be an issue, and build quality is ok too, but the designs are terrifically variable. With LEDs, they will say things like 'Vmax 3.3v, I max 1A' yet claim it is a 5W lamp. Just before Christmas, I built a Chinese supplied 7MHz Rockmite transceiver. It was incredibly good value for money at £13, but they claimed it was 8W output, when it could only ever give 4W, when you looked at the circuit (and it did give 4W, BTW)
Perhaps we expect too much for so little!
73 Steve
Some Chinese stuff is good. I built a 7MHz Pixie kit (about £3?) and it was very good; it would have been hard to buy the parts and crystal here for less. I am very surprised that most amateur gear is still from Japan. When the Chinese really address the amateur market I think the Japanese will get a real shock. I don't like Chinese "sweat shops" and I don't like that most parts are now made in China. I can see this ending in tears. Of course, the Chinese will demand better wages and we will look elsewhere for cheap labour costs.
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