Wired

I know I’m not the only one fed up with the tidalwave of cheap mass-produced electronic products being sold. How many DVD players do I have to go through just to get one that performs half-way decently. And then it lasts only one-year and cannot be repaired. Everyone I talk to has at least one horror story about some cheap electronic item they have purchased that lasts only as long as the 90-day warranty, then tossed into the trash. Not only does this waste my time, but it is extremely wasteful of our resources and toxic to our environment.

As the head of Wired product engineering, I cannot create a product that is “just good enough.” Since our beginning back in 1991, we have always created great robust products, with engineering that we expect to last years. And it shows, too. We are still hearing about people using our products 6, 7, even 8 years after they purchased them. Which is pretty amazing considering that the computers they are running in have long been obsolete.

I have an old Sony VCR that is still running great. Inside it has 5 PC boards full of components, an all steel chassis with steel cross-members for support, various test points and calibration points, and a great big linear power supply and heatsink. I’ve had to replace several wear-parts over the years, but all were easily available, and with the service manual easy to find and replace. This has kept the unit running for years and years.

A few years ago, several people gave me dead VCR’s they had recently purchased. All were out of warranty units and thus were unsupported by the manufacturer. Cracking them open I was shocked to see what was inside. What they called a chassis was a single piece of molded plastic. One single PC board was snapped into the plastic with wires loosely draped around the inside. For a power supply was a tiny, cheap pc board with the smallest heat-sink I have ever seen on the power devices. This was utter crap. Cheaply made, with no more thought on engineering than what they could get working out-the-door to make a profit. Do you think this kind of product can run for a year? Two?

Quality Lives On…in Silicon Valley

Here at Wired, quality in design and manufacturing is our specialty. All Wired products are designed, manufactured, tested, packaged, and shipped from right here in Silicon Valley, California. Since the beginning of the electronics revolution, Silicon Valley has been at the heart and soul of every consumer product. And we know that in order to make great products, you need to build them here, where talented technicians and engineers oversee all aspects of production and testing.

I’ll write additional specific technical information about our products in later posts, so stay tuned. And if you ever have questions or comments, you can email me at mark(at)wiredinc.com.

-Mark Bain

This entry was posted on Monday, June 5th, 2006 at 5:32 pm and is filed under Marks Corner Table. You can skip to the end and leave a response.