Mike Harrison wrote:
> On Sat, 26 May 2007 01:33:47 +1000, you wrote:
>
>   
>> In my opinion distributors are now largely redundant and have been so
>> for a number of years.
>>
>>     
[snipped]
>> That said, I do regularly use a local parts supplier for general
>> parts, kitting services, getting hard-to-finds from the grey market,
>> etc. They ARE providing a service by keeping stocks and having parts
>> when I need them so I don't mind paying them a bit extra for that.
>>     
>
> I'd pretty much agree - if you look at how Microchip have set up buy.microchip.com I wonder why
> anyone would want to be a Microchip distributor - whenever I've been buying  100s to 1000s of chips,
> buy.microchip has been the cheapest, and I doubt many disties could match their programming service
> on price. 
> Tech support is one argument sometimes offered, but in most cases the manufacturer can offer better
> support if they have themselves set up right (ISTR reading somewhere that Microchip had 24/7 phone
> support). Stuff moves so fast these days that I can't see many disties having the resources to keep
> their staff up to date.
>
> My usual problem with disties is that as an independent consultant, I need parts in prototype qtys,
> and occasional support but have little or no control over final purchasing, or knowledge of sales
> numbers/timescales, which tends to upset distributors, but if you are designing a specific part in,
> it will always be coming from the manufacturer. 
>
> There is definitely still a need for broad-line distis like Digikey, Farnell etc. for smaller qtys,
> as the convenience of being able to get a couple of dozen parts from as many different manufacturers
> within a day or two is easily worth the price premium. 
>
>   


 From my perspective (beginner hobbyist).... distributors (digikey in 
particular), are great. There are no good mom/pop stores where I live, 
and, the DigiKey printed catalogue is a trove of information for me. It 
helps me to see what parts are available, what parts are similar, and 
what prices to expect. It is a learning tool! In addition, the small 
quantities of parts I need are typically not available from the 
distributor...

Rolf

P.S. Microchip has evicted me from their sampling program... I signed up 
years ago and listed "hobbyist" as my company, tried to be honest, etc. 
I got samples about 4 times, but now, when I try, I get the "Dear John" 
rejection page. Anyone else the same? I have (starting from even before 
I got my first samples) routinely been buying PIC's, and only sampling 
occasionally... I have bought at least 4 times as many Microchip parts 
(not just PIC's) than I have sampled.... as a hobbyist that is quite a 
lot .... ;-)

Still, it seems the "Just Sample Microchip" concept is no longer available.

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