19 October 2007
Grey market blues
How to avoid the nasty surprises of purchasing components that don’t do what they say on the label. By Mike Richardson.
The prevalence of counterfeit components is growing significantly, due partly to companies failing to plan contingency against the threat of obsolescence. In a desperate attempt to maintain production harmony, they use supply channels of unauthorised component markets and end up with a bad case of grey market blues!
ACAL Technology’s sales and marketing director, Steve Carr reckons that, just like rock ‘n’ roll, counterfeiting will never die. “Counterfeiting is driven by the simple economics of demand and supply, and by the imperative of obtaining market prominence through the continual release of new and innovative products, which speeds product development and generates a significant reduction in product life cycles.
“It’s this heated industry environment that makes the technology sector appear to offer rich pickings. As more component manufacturing migrates to Asia, where manufacturing lines are easily replicated and where the total cost of production is massively reduced, counterfeiting is increasingly becoming a global phenomenon.”
Author
Mike Richardson
Supporting Information
Downloads
11776\Grey Market Blues.pdf
Websites
http://www.acaltechnology.co.uk/
http://www.micromark.net/
http://www.rocelec.com/
Companies
ACAL Technology Ltd
Micromark (A member of The Abacus Group)
Rochester Electronics
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