eevBLAB 101 - Why Are Tektronix Oscilloscopes So Expensive?

[EEVblog]

Answering the question of why Tektronix and the other top tier manufactuer's oscilloscopes are so expensive? Why don't they just make a low cost scope?
Here is a list of 16 reasons, can you add more?

00:00 - Why Are Tektronix Oscilloscopes So Expensive?
03:18 - Educational Market
04:00 - Warranty & Service
04:41 - Industrial Components
05:55 - Made in the USA, Supply Chain Assurance, & Export control agreements
07:29 - Applications Support
08:46 - Construction Quality & Consistency
09:07 - Longevity of Production
10:22 - Calibration & Servicing
11:34 - Measurement Confidence
12:25 - Approved Vendors
14:06 - Defacto Standard & Brand Solutions
14:51 - Accesories
15:29 - Pioneers & High end solutions
16:53 - Small things
17:56 - Consistency in User Interface
19:21 - More polished firmware
21:14 - More polished applications software solutions

[bdunham7]

I think the fact that Fortive has a corporate goal of very high gross margins on their products--over $3 billion gross profit on $5.5 billion total revenue--means that they put a lot of effort into catering to customers that are willing to pay their prices.

https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/FTV/financials?p=FTV

[nctnico]

Add Yokogawa to the 'big brand names' list. 

And there is also one very important item missing from the list. Maybe even the most important one: pedigree. The big names have been around for a long time and they know how to implement the core functionality of a piece of test equipment properly. For me this is the most important reason to buy A-brand equipment: it simply works as advertised even in the niche corner cases because the manufacturer has designed so many similar devices before while receiving tons of customer feedback.

[thm_w]

More polished firmware is easier when you have less features   

[EEVblog]

More polished firmware is easier when you have less features   

 

[EEVblog]

Add Yokogawa to the 'big brand names' list. 

Yep, have used them. They are a go-to scope brand in some industries, like the multi channel market.

[Black Phoenix]

More polished firmware is easier when you have less features   

Isn't it a case of since it is newer it should have offered more since the other brands have, or a case of since it costs that much it should have everything since the other brands do it for less?

Or it is both?

[thm_w]

More polished firmware is easier when you have less features   

Isn't it a case of since it is newer it should have offered more since the other brands have, or a case of since it costs that much it should have everything since the other brands do it for less?

Or it is both?

They can try to one-up the cheaper brands, but its a losing battle. "Lots of features" is not on Daves list.
They might ask their major customers, what features do you need that we didn't include.
Also in the end, marketing will not allow it to eat into higher end scopes, its competing with yourself.

[SiliconWizard]

Add Yokogawa to the 'big brand names' list. 

Yep, have used them. They are a go-to scope brand in some industries, like the multi channel market.

Yep, very good stuff.

And of course, Lecroy.

[Kleinstein]

There are 2 ways to looks at the price:
a) how much the top tear scopes are worth to the customers
b) how much the manufacturers have to spend

The 2 sides don't add up. It is more that it has to work out both ways:
The value to the customers is kind of an upper limit for the price. The costs to the manufactuers is more like an lower limit. If they done come together there would be no product or the market gets smaller for just the few customers that are really OK with a high price.
For the manufacturer there is still a margin to add and that can vary. So the better understanding may the customer side, not so much the manufacturer side.

[Ed.Kloonk]

How come Fluke never went further into the bench scope market rather than the odd CRO here and there?

[bdunham7]

How come Fluke never went further into the bench scope market rather than the odd CRO here and there?

Fluke only acquired scopes of any kind, including Scopemeters, from their tie-up with Philips.  The bench scopes were just Philips rebadges AFAIK and not an area where they were market leaders at any point.  I'm sure Danaher shut all that down promptly if it hadn't been already.  Only the cash cows survive, the rest are slaughtered.

[Black Phoenix]

I'm sure Danaher shut all that down promptly if it hadn't been already.  Only the cash cows survive, the rest are slaughtered.

Scopemeters are still being sold to this day and refreshed. Then even refreshed their models again in 2021 with the Series III for the 4 channel models.

They also released with the Series II a 4 channel motor drive analyzer scopemeter, the MDA, that they refreshed also last year.

It's basically a 190-504 but with special functions to test inverter type motor drives, same as the Fluke 215C/225C was a 199C but with special functions to test industrial communication bus protocols as Profi and Can-Bus.

[Grubi]

There is another simple answer - look over the number of people working on big 4 and the rest