> However as a sign of good
> faith it wouldn't kill them to ship out a tube of chips. Even maybe
> a programmer (possibly a PSP rather than an ICE2000) now
> and then to encourage end-use purchases

That's probably the last thing they want to do.  I bet they lose money on
every one-off purchase.  If you only make a buck or two on something, even
sending a data book CD is a loss, let alone a printed manual.  Any kind of
personal support costs far more.  So if hobbiests want to buy an occasional
PIC from a distributor, fine, but Microchip has every reason not to
encourage it.  All hobbiest sales together are insignificant compared to
their real customers who buy for production units.

On the other hand, Mircochip is well ahead of all the others when it comes
to supporting the people that design real products.  They have a very nice
program in place, whereas most of the others make you go thru distributors.


********************************************************************
Olin Lathrop, embedded systems consultant in Littleton Massachusetts
(978) 742-9014, olin@embedinc.com, http://www.embedinc.com

--
http://www.piclist.com#nomail Going offline? Don't AutoReply us!
email listserv@mitvma.mit.edu with SET PICList DIGEST in the body