I see no reason why we can't have both product visual design as well as
functionality. I believe that what it boils down to is that when you let
engineers design the "looks" of anything, you get something that is functional
but, not necessarily pretty to look at. I'm not picking on engineers but,
design as far as the visual aspect, just isn't their cup of tea.
Gary, N7HTS
On Wed, 22 Aug 2007 12:35:48 -0400
Rick Denney <rick@rickdenney.com> wrote:
> Augie Hansen writes...
>
>> I'm delighted to see a couple of American companies kicking butt
>> with some world class ham equipment. Let's hope that Ten-Tec and
>> Elecraft both live long and prosper.
>
> In my various hobbies, I've observed that American mass-production
> items become uncompetitive with Asian mass-production items, but then
> American companies shift their focus from mass production at lower
> price points to niche and custom products at higher price points. For
> example, high-end bicycles shifted from American-made Schwinns and
> Huffys found in department stores to (cheaper) Asian-made
> department-store offerings with American brand labels. Now,
> American-made bicycles such as Trek, Cannondale and Serotta (and many
> others) start at the upper middle price point and go up into the
> stratosphere. For high-end products, the high costs of American
> production are within the higher price points and companies can be
> successful, where they struggled trying to be competitive with cheaper
> products.
>
> Ten Tec has made this shift (whether intentionally or not--and it may
> have been the market that opened up for the higher price points), and
> Elecraft virtually defines it.
>
> When I look *inside* my Omni V, I see a product made by people who
> care how their product looks even on the inside. I have a Kenwood
> TS430, which is a completely usable radio, but the inside of it shows
> far more evidence of cost engineering. The Kenwood shows more refined
> external product design based on their long history (at the time) with
> consumer electronics. But the Ten Tec has a functional elegance
> suggesting that the person who did the styling was a radio person, not
> a product stylist. The Elecraft also lacks mere product styling, and
> its appearance suggests a radio that wants to be *used*.
>
> Rick, KR9D
>
> ---
> Richard W. Denney, Jr. PE|Iteris, Inc. |
> Associate Vice President |107 Carpenter Dr. Ste 230 | 703.925.3819
> rwd@iteris.com |Sterling, VA 20164 |Fax 703.471.1757
>
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