Actually when they say bad publicity is good publicity they might be right, it might actually help them.
They been on the news stating they are going to ensure their drivers won't talk to clones.
It shows a potential client that, the device is good enough to be cloned and that after FTDI clamps down to use only genuine chips the client will feel confident they are using genuine chips.
And still not a single case of a consumer grade product affected by this, it's been a week, someone should have encounter one by now.
Probably because consumer goods use their own PID/VID which somehow are not affected. Somehow FTDI managed to shoot both their feet off by hitting the people they need to put their chips into actual designs the hardest
Then again if it is a consumer/consumeable device people just trash it and buy new. If one of my USB-to-serial cables stops working I'm not going to disect it; I just get a new one.
Actually I'm pretty sure one if Bayer is using it then lots of medical device mfgs are using it too and they probably have very tight control on the supply chain. With a custom VID/PID the device will only work with the provided customized drivers so these won't update unless the mfg itself updates them. So if that is the case then even if the hobbyists market evaporates medical devices move so slow it will be decades and probably never when they even being to consider other options. (Medical devices move so slow, so much RnD on the simple things, so much double/triple/quad checking, its great but it is slow)
There is life support medical and consumer medical. Consumer-medical isn't much beyond consumer grade equipment. Most of the low cost tele-healthcare medical devices like blood sugar and blood presure testers are made in China so the chance there is a FT232 compatible chip in there is very large (if it needs USB to UART and the designers choose for the FT232). The market for tele-healthcare devices is very competitive so every penny counts.
Attaching the word medical means a new world of QA/QC that you do not seem to understand. A 5cent disposable part under goes far more testing and QA than the same 5cent part in non-medical use.
Just because something is made in china does not automatically mean it contains fake parts and has no QA/QC. Last time I checked countless top quality firms use china.
A blood glucose meter is a medically critical type device people who do not have the ability to regulate or produce insulin need a blood glucose meter to tell them how their body is responding or for caretakers to know how to care for the patients. Those that can not easily communicate the early symptoms of hypoglycemia a hand held consumer medical meter is a critical tool for caretakers. I've torn down my meter and tested it against a draw 5ml blood test and it is well within spec even without calibrating it. Early detection and response tracking is what a glucose meter is for and it is very important that they work and report accurate results and no chances would be taken on risking it with fake chips.
A simple/free/cheap meter doesn't mean it is crap quality it is so cheap to get because people need it to cope with diabetes. I'm just paranoid so I measure my blood sugar level anyways but for others it is a choice between going blind or dying as not being able to measure your blood sugar can seriously compromise the management of diabetes.
The meters are certified for "In Vitro Diagnostic Use" and given that I worked at a place that was certified for implantable devices (which probably has the highest level of controls) and a much lower level of "not for diagnostic use, RnD only" which oddly followed basically the same standards I think your making some bold assumptions about consumer medical devices. (Standards exist in europe, us, ... that regulate these devices that provide critical diagnostic information)(Doctors use these meters too to evaluate patients in clinics/hospitals for quick measurements so a dependable device is not a light matter when your talking about prescribing drugs or providing medical advice based on the information the meter provides)
Sure a off label, china direct product with no certifications, no regulatory label, nothing at all, is certain to just be a toy. But real medical devices even consumer level ones have the proper controls even for instruments meant only for RnD that are not used to (strictly speaking) to diagnose or provide clinical information on patients.
You seem to misunderstand QA/QC is basically invisible to the end user and if it is working everything would be the same if by chance they got away with it. But QA/QC is meant to detect fakes, damaged/out of spec shipments, compliance with local and international standards, best practices, auditing, record keeping, .... (All things no one ever sees normally)
The moment you attach medical and I'm talking about real medical devices that have the appropriate labels and government approvals (which includes blood glucose meters) then they would not be affected.
And as a single point of reference I intentionally mangled my blood glucose meter's VID/PID to test against the evil driver and it is fine (Nor would it have been affected even if it was because its called defense in depth and they only use an old driver that they obviously qualified long ago with a custom signed driver with their own VID/PID combination). The package appears to be the real thing as well. To change something simple like a USB port on a device like this which technically isn't critical in my meter requires a lot of paperwork, approvals, testing. (And to the end user they won't notice a thing)
Plus they offer meters so cheap because they get you on the supplies (Like a printer). Test strips and lancets (also highly regulated) are constant ongoing costs.