Date: 02/08/2011

Suggestions on electronics design for the commodity market by Wally Rhines

Recently Electronics industry business Guru Wally Rhines of Mentor Graphics was in Bangalore to present his study on how the product differentiation will help to design a successful electronics device for mass market.

Here are the some of the points from his presentation:
Apple increases its profit due to its product differentiating abilities such as own processor chip design and availability of exclusive software apps for the user through differentiated eco-system. According to him Nokia not having its own semiconductor chip design is a drawback. He says Apple invests in semiconductor design resulting in growth for Apple, where as Nokia divests in semiconductor design.
Product differentiating is easiest in emerging markets. He compared Android vs iPhone to PC vs MAC.
Companies should create infrastructure (cloud and apps) to sustain differentiation.
One more example of product with difference, he has explained is TI-80 Titanium Calculator from Texas Instruments.
The product differentiation is possible through both chips and embedded software.
Switching semiconductor suppliers in many of the categories is difficult, exceptional example is memory chips.