Author Topic: Historical name changes: Atten -> Siglent & Agilent -> Keysight  (Read 2669 times)

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Offline martinotTopic starter

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[ warning of reply to old post; this is a reflection over a historical brand change that many have forgotten ]

The design company behind the scope seems to be DinYoung Technology Company, under the parent of the Atten group.

http://www.atten.com.cn/index.aspx

Recently, Atten launched a new brand name, how this strategy works with the 'other' Atten scopes I don't know, I mean is it competing with itself or will it slowly fade away the Atten brand for selling scopes:

http://www.siglent.com/en/index.asp

Here are some facts that are clear:

Atten sells more than DSO, it has many different electronic products in its portfolio
Rigol focuses on its DSO, and has a few other test gear in its portfolio
Atten's 1000s series models have different memory specs and vendors don't mention which it is they sell, or have one model number and the better model's spec sheet
Atten created a new model line called Siglent that is identical to Atten and is confusing
Atten reviews are not easy to find, even on youtube.com or other forums, not just eevblog



Quite ironic that Atten probably got "inspired" by a leading brad name like Agilent, when they looked for a new name for the measurement business to operate under - Siglent - and some years ago Agilent changed their measurement business to operate under a new company with the Keysight name.

:popcorn:
 

Offline CalMachine

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Re: Historical name changes: Atten -> Siglent & Agilent -> Keysight
« Reply #1 on: July 07, 2020, 09:36:19 pm »
I'm pretty sure Agilent sold their T&M division... not just renamed it.
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Online Benta

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Re: Historical name changes: Atten -> Siglent & Agilent -> Keysight
« Reply #2 on: July 07, 2020, 10:04:14 pm »
I'm pretty sure Agilent sold their T&M division... not just renamed it.

Correct. And if we really go back to history basics: we're talking Hewlett-Packard - a legendary company.
 

Online tautech

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Re: Historical name changes: Atten -> Siglent & Agilent -> Keysight
« Reply #3 on: July 07, 2020, 10:19:36 pm »
All is not quite as it seems.  ;)
A simple search of the forum reveals much discussion in years gone by.....

Some informative threads:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/blog/eevblog-826-siglent-ceo-eric-qin-visits-the-eevblog-lab/


Some now banned members still contribute under well known logins.
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/beginners/rigol-ds1102e-vs-xytron-dso1102cal-aka-(atten-ads1102cal)/
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/siglent-scopes/
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Offline martinotTopic starter

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Re: Historical name changes: Atten -> Siglent & Agilent -> Keysight
« Reply #4 on: July 11, 2020, 08:03:39 am »
I'm pretty sure Agilent sold their T&M division... not just renamed it.

Yes, that is correct. That was the same with change from HP to Agilent (they sold their T&M and medical divisions).

I also think the renaming to Siglent was very likley due to that Atten reorganized the ownership structure of Attens T&M division.

That said I do think (which was the purpose of my post) that it was funny how the Siglent name change was clearly inspired by the old Agilent name change.   ^-^
« Last Edit: July 11, 2020, 08:07:33 am by martinot »
 

Offline martinotTopic starter

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Re: Historical name changes: Atten -> Siglent & Agilent -> Keysight
« Reply #5 on: July 11, 2020, 08:24:17 am »
All is not quite as it seems.  ;)
A simple search of the forum reveals much discussion in years gone by.....

Some informative threads:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/blog/eevblog-826-siglent-ceo-eric-qin-visits-the-eevblog-lab/


Some now banned members still contribute under well known logins.
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/beginners/rigol-ds1102e-vs-xytron-dso1102cal-aka-(atten-ads1102cal)/
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/siglent-scopes/

I know that the previous name for Siglent was not only Atten, but also DinYoung Technologies Co.

But I think it where more intersting with the Agilent name change, and Siglent name change "inspired" by them. :)

Here is one more relevant link I found with same type of search you did above:

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/beginners/rigol-ds1102e-vs-xytron-dso1102cal-aka-(atten-ads1102cal)/

Will post more as I find them, but the above one is really interesting!

 

Online tautech

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Re: Historical name changes: Atten -> Siglent & Agilent -> Keysight
« Reply #6 on: July 11, 2020, 09:25:55 am »
All is not quite as it seems.  ;)
A simple search of the forum reveals much discussion in years gone by.....

Some informative threads:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/blog/eevblog-826-siglent-ceo-eric-qin-visits-the-eevblog-lab/


Some now banned members still contribute under well known logins.
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/beginners/rigol-ds1102e-vs-xytron-dso1102cal-aka-(atten-ads1102cal)/
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/siglent-scopes/

I know that the previous name for Siglent was not only Atten, but also DinYoung Technologies Co.

But I think it where more intersting with the Agilent name change, and Siglent name change "inspired" by them. :)

Here is one more relevant link I found with same type of search you did above:

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/beginners/rigol-ds1102e-vs-xytron-dso1102cal-aka-(atten-ads1102cal)/

Will post more as I find them, but the above one is really interesting!
As highlighted above and with other info shared with you today about a members homeland you might put 2+2 together with the homeland of member aghp.  ;)
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Some stuff seen @ Siglent HQ cannot be shared.
 

Offline tooki

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Re: Historical name changes: Atten -> Siglent & Agilent -> Keysight
« Reply #7 on: July 11, 2020, 06:37:31 pm »
I'm pretty sure Agilent sold their T&M division... not just renamed it.

Yes, that is correct. That was the same with change from HP to Agilent (they sold their T&M and medical divisions).

No, that's not correct. It was neither "just renamed" nor sold.

It was spun off, meaning that the original company essentially split in two (unequal) entities, one of which had to get a new name. (Corporate meiosis, basically!)
 

Offline ChristofferB

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Re: Historical name changes: Atten -> Siglent & Agilent -> Keysight
« Reply #8 on: July 13, 2020, 07:29:51 am »
Yeah. Analytical chemistry instruments like HPLCs and mass spectrometers still carry the Agilent brand. I think that's the same division as the previous HP one.
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Offline tooki

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Re: Historical name changes: Atten -> Siglent & Agilent -> Keysight
« Reply #9 on: July 13, 2020, 03:32:22 pm »
HP originally spun off Agilent (to house everything other than computers and printers). Then Agilent spun off Keysight to house electronics test and measurement (leaving Agilent solely for laboratory analytics stuff). And then HP recently spun off its enterprise IT division as HP Enterprise, leaving only HP PCs and printers under the original company.
 

Offline 25 CPS

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Re: Historical name changes: Atten -> Siglent & Agilent -> Keysight
« Reply #10 on: July 13, 2020, 03:37:13 pm »
HP originally spun off Agilent (to house everything other than computers and printers). Then Agilent spun off Keysight to house electronics test and measurement (leaving Agilent solely for laboratory analytics stuff). And then HP recently spun off its enterprise IT division as HP Enterprise, leaving only HP PCs and printers under the original company.

There was one other section of business that, in my opinion, regrettably, stayed under the HP side of the split: calculators.

I really think the calculator division would have done better under Agilent and then Keysight than it has under HP.
 

Offline tooki

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Re: Historical name changes: Atten -> Siglent & Agilent -> Keysight
« Reply #11 on: July 13, 2020, 03:38:31 pm »
How so?
 

Online ejeffrey

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Re: Historical name changes: Atten -> Siglent & Agilent -> Keysight
« Reply #12 on: July 13, 2020, 04:40:37 pm »
HP originally spun off Agilent (to house everything other than computers and printers). Then Agilent spun off Keysight to house electronics test and measurement (leaving Agilent solely for laboratory analytics stuff). And then HP recently spun off its enterprise IT division as HP Enterprise, leaving only HP PCs and printers under the original company.

There was one other section of business that, in my opinion, regrettably, stayed under the HP side of the split: calculators.

I really think the calculator division would have done better under Agilent and then Keysight than it has under HP.

I think that is just wishful thinking.  Calculators -- especially high end scientific and domain specific calculators like HP made -- just don't have the value proposition that they did in the 80s and 90s.  Really the only markets left by even the mid 2000s were education and cheap/disposable 4 function calculators.  TI dominated the educational market (at least in the US) well before HP spun off Agilent.

These days, they only really appeal to nostalgia nerds and that isn't really a viable business model.  I love the feel of real physical buttons as much as anyone, but it isn't enough to justify keeping such a bulky and limited device around.
 

Offline TimFox

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Re: Historical name changes: Atten -> Siglent & Agilent -> Keysight
« Reply #13 on: July 13, 2020, 10:54:45 pm »
For those of us who will give up RPN calculators when they are pried from our cold, dead fingers, there is an interesting Swiss company  https://www.swissmicros.com/  that came up with some modern hardware with similar configuration to traditional -hp- handhelds and apparently runs more modern software on them.  I find the keypads a bit stiff compared with my real ones, but they work well.  They have several configurations that run on essentially the same hardware.
 

Online Circlotron

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Re: Historical name changes: Atten -> Siglent & Agilent -> Keysight
« Reply #14 on: July 15, 2020, 01:34:08 am »
leaving only HP PCs and printers under the original company.
And many of the buyers of those PCs and printers would have no idea of the HP brand name history and legacy. Would have been a WAY smarter move to keep the HP name with test and measurement stuff IMHO. Can you imagine for example, Rolls Royce keeping their name with ship deck machinery and renaming their cars to xcvjnskdnfas? About as dumb as it gets.
 
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Offline tooki

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Re: Historical name changes: Atten -> Siglent & Agilent -> Keysight
« Reply #15 on: July 15, 2020, 10:34:28 am »
leaving only HP PCs and printers under the original company.
And many of the buyers of those PCs and printers would have no idea of the HP brand name history and legacy. Would have been a WAY smarter move to keep the HP name with test and measurement stuff IMHO. Can you imagine for example, Rolls Royce keeping their name with ship deck machinery and renaming their cars to xcvjnskdnfas? About as dumb as it gets.
I agree with you 100%.
 

Offline 25 CPS

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Re: Historical name changes: Atten -> Siglent & Agilent -> Keysight
« Reply #16 on: July 17, 2020, 07:59:02 pm »
I think that is just wishful thinking.  Calculators -- especially high end scientific and domain specific calculators like HP made -- just don't have the value proposition that they did in the 80s and 90s.  Really the only markets left by even the mid 2000s were education and cheap/disposable 4 function calculators.  TI dominated the educational market (at least in the US) well before HP spun off Agilent.

These days, they only really appeal to nostalgia nerds and that isn't really a viable business model.  I love the feel of real physical buttons as much as anyone, but it isn't enough to justify keeping such a bulky and limited device around.

Well, it might be a bit of wishful thinking and I'm not under any illusion that the calculator market's pretty much on its last legs but my line of thinking was this:  Given how things went down at the Hewlett-Packard in the years after Agilent was separated off, I think the calculator product line might have fared a bit better at Agilent and subsequently Keysight than it has at HP even though it certainly wouldn't have been a return to the good old days by any stretch.

I'm aware of the Swiss Micros units and if any of my regular use HPs conk, the plan is to replace them with their Swiss Micros counterparts, but I'll cross that bridge if it comes.
 

Offline srb1954

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Re: Historical name changes: Atten -> Siglent & Agilent -> Keysight
« Reply #17 on: July 18, 2020, 02:43:08 am »
IMHO they should have renamed the test equipment division with the full "Hewlett-Packard" name to reflect the legacy of Bill and Dave. It is a terrible shame that the names of the company founders are now three times removed from the great test equipment company they originally created.

They could have then retained the abbreviated HP brand just for the computer products. Most buyers of those products would have no idea, nor cared, who Bill and Dave were.
« Last Edit: July 18, 2020, 02:59:29 am by srb1954 »
 
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Offline 0culus

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Re: Historical name changes: Atten -> Siglent & Agilent -> Keysight
« Reply #18 on: July 18, 2020, 03:01:45 am »
HP originally spun off Agilent (to house everything other than computers and printers). Then Agilent spun off Keysight to house electronics test and measurement (leaving Agilent solely for laboratory analytics stuff). And then HP recently spun off its enterprise IT division as HP Enterprise, leaving only HP PCs and printers under the original company.

There was one other section of business that, in my opinion, regrettably, stayed under the HP side of the split: calculators.

I really think the calculator division would have done better under Agilent and then Keysight than it has under HP.

I think that is just wishful thinking.  Calculators -- especially high end scientific and domain specific calculators like HP made -- just don't have the value proposition that they did in the 80s and 90s.  Really the only markets left by even the mid 2000s were education and cheap/disposable 4 function calculators.  TI dominated the educational market (at least in the US) well before HP spun off Agilent.

These days, they only really appeal to nostalgia nerds and that isn't really a viable business model.  I love the feel of real physical buttons as much as anyone, but it isn't enough to justify keeping such a bulky and limited device around.

That's not entirely true...the HP-12C financial calculator is still popular among bean counter types which is why it is the only classic HP calculator that is still made. That said, nowadays pocket calculators are largely the realm of the ultra nerdy in science and engineering, much like slide rules. I am happily guilty as charged. I have: HP15C, 2xHP16C, HP45, HP35S (not a bad little machine for a modern one), HP50g (lack of a REAL enter key is a disappointment). I'm not the only one at my work who uses old HP calculators though.  :-+
« Last Edit: July 18, 2020, 03:04:38 am by 0culus »
 


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