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Why did Tektronix stop making the great scopes?

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SL4P:
Take a look at AMPEX in the same generation of companies - and a very similar outcome.

Interestingly - both companies had a very large stake in broadcast video equipment (SONY too), and they have all felt the earth move drastically since the mid-90s with the shift to digital technology.

Plenty of people pushed them t respond earlier in the 90s, but by then they were all dropping into the US groove of money-money-money / shareholder returns etc.  Nothing to do with innovation.  Sadly, as much as I loved all three - they got what they deserved.

Wuerstchenhund:

--- Quote from: LabSpokane on December 24, 2014, 05:22:29 am ---One last point, don't underestimate the allure of the PC market of the mid 80s through the 90s. Tek had a market-leading color printer in the Phaser series, and like HP, they wanted out of the fuddy duddy T&M business and into the "gold-mine" PC market.  That's where the focus was for long enough for HP/Agilent to leave Tek in the dust in T&M.

--- End quote ---

Not quite. Tektronix had some advanced printers (i.e. solid ink printers, which is what the original Phaser Series was)
but the color printer market belonged to ink jets and later color lasers which both were cheaper than solid ink. When it turned out that solid ink wasn't the commercial success Tek had hoped they started making laser printers under the Phaser moniker as well. The commercial failure of solid ink was a problem for Tek as they did invest quite a lot in this technology.

However, Tek never had illusions that the printer business would become more profitable than their T&M division, and certainly didn't want to get out of the (at that time) more profitable T&M business. The fact that they struggled with their printer business was the reason they eventually sold the whole division to Xerox in 2000.

EEVblog:

--- Quote from: Ecklar on December 24, 2014, 12:11:36 am ---Why did Tektronix stop making scopes like the venerable 2465 or 2465B?   What changed?

--- End quote ---

Danaher.

rx8pilot:

--- Quote from: EEVblog on December 24, 2014, 05:50:06 am ---
--- Quote from: Ecklar on December 24, 2014, 12:11:36 am ---Why did Tektronix stop making scopes like the venerable 2465 or 2465B?   What changed?

--- End quote ---

Danaher.

--- End quote ---

Subtle.  :box:
This has happened to so many innovative leaders. Somehow, the MBA's are only taught to milk the cow without any understanding that they also need to feed it.

poorchava:
If they switched from making good analog scopes to good digital scopes, then fine, but their digital scopes leave much to be desired. I use an MSO2024 at work as my everyday all-round scope and almost everything leaves a feeling that "it could work better". Software is slow, settings are not stellar (eg vertical offset adjustment range depends on volts/div), logic analyzer is slow and has peculiar setup. It just seems like this is some sub-standard product, not a name brand. I've worked with Agilents (mainly MSO3xxx models) and they just work better.

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