Re: Anyone here ever brought a hw product to market?
Hi Hank,
I'm coming in late to this conversation, and I'll second what mtripoli says. One item he didn't mention was after the sale tech support, which can suck the will to live right out of you...8^)
I've brought a handful of products to market, most of them intended for little niches. For the most part anything I've designed that sells more than a hundred units is a "hit out of the park." On the other hand my prices are reasonable but by no means cheap. I don't know the nature of the product you're considering but I do believe there is something to be said for operating in the niches. It's small enough that a lot of the problems are surmountable--maintaining parts isn't much, it's not lucrative enough to worry about knockoffs, etc.
There was a series in Nuts and Volts maybe 10 years ago (?) called (I think) the Design Cycle. I wouldn't be too surprised if one of those articles, the one about taking a "project" and making it into a "product" was the one mtripoli was referencing. I remember a lot of negative reader feedback on it but I found it to be highly accurate. I'm not afraid of adversity and I'm not above tilting at windmills.
But it is hard. A lot of the best things, the best accomplishments, are hard. Go into it with eyes open, because all of those negatives are real, but if you want to do it then damn the consequences and just go for it!
Best Regards,
Paul
The way to avoid mistakes is to gain experience. The way to gain experience is to make mistakes.
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