China is somewhat the AWS of hardware (I mean we're definitely never making anything in the US again, that's for sure)... But it is a very big problem indeed. And a totally different, human interaction driven issue to say the least.
It would be nice to have more transparency during the process.
Developing, prototyping, and manufacturing hardware (and generally dealing with China) can be a painful process even if you have great contacts and know what you're doing. Companies like PCH International alleviate quite a few of these problems when dealing with hardware and maybe we need to see more of these sprout up. The middleman is huge in the China issue.
The 3D printing "revolution" is still in its infancy, it's tough to print high-res models for prototyping certain items and you end up deferring to styrofoam and other methods of prototyping before you get to the tooling stage. But it will improve.
It's so refreshing to read articles like this and to see a hardware renaissance in the Valley and throughout the industry in general. I'm getting so sick and tired of "Hey, check out my new app, it's like Instagram and it's social" Enough of this crap.
People need to make things, it's tough, but as someone who's a few months into a hardware start up, I'll say this: it's a great feeling to simply hold something in your hands. Let's make stuff!
I've spent the past 3 weeks interviewing with various accelerators across North America and I think my favourite quotes from the entire experience were:
"so you guys are like real engineers" [in reference to us making hardware]
and
"Oh, so you're not just another mobile app"
I love reading about hardware startups - I'm really excited about the next generation of things to come!
I think it's hilarious how kids these days think they are in the "technology business" because they launched an e-commerce website or paid a company $25k to build them an app. But may the best man win...
I mean we're definitely never making anything in the US again, that's for sure
That may be true, it may not. It's a topic that's actually the subject of intense debate right his minute. Many people contend that the US is in the midst of a "manufacturing renaissance" as manufacturing moves back here from China. Not everybody agrees that it's a meaningful trend, but it's certainly not a given that US manufacturing is dead.
(I mean we're definitely never making anything in the US again, that's for sure
??? What does this mean? The US is making more stuff today that it ever has at any time in its past. We may not make a lot of super-cheap consumer gadgets, but there's more to the manufacturing world than disposable crap.
