In the past few years, crowdsourcing websites such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo have profoundly changed the landscape of business and manufacture, not least in the field of electronic components production. While the concept of crowdsourcing can be applied to anything from creative arts projects to games and appliances, the rise in consumer demand for dev kits combined with the speed with which new hardware is being produced and sold has created a perfect landscape for hardware entrepreneurs to harness people power to fund their projects or collect ideas.
In the past, manufacturers and distributors were able to exercise much tighter control over interaction in the marketplace. Now, the grassroots engineering community can use their voices - and their wallets - to make a vital input into the development process.
Electronic components distributors have found that multiple factors impact engineers’ purchasing decisions when it comes to new dev kits. Ease of use, support, convenience and functionality initially attract many engineers to a product, but technical options are often the real deciding factors. Polls have shown that features and requirements, including processor data width, speed, connectivity and physical interface, tend to hold the most weight in an engineer’s decision to purchase.
The demand for manufacturers to keep pace with new industry applications and prototyping requirements will only increase as dev kits continue to become more accessible and sophisticated. This makes the engineering community the ultimate resource for manufacturers to gain insight and inspiration for new products. Manufacturers can use their expert input to anticipate new market trends and guide innovation.
Unsurprisingly, the crowdsourcing model tends to pay the strongest dividends for projects that successfully utilise social media and online communities. Established brands may have a wider reach in the early stages of a project, but start-ups and campaigns that emerge from genuine passion projects are often able to be more flexible and tell a more compelling story.
Conversations on social channels and forums can also give manufacturers a one-of-a-kind look into the minds of engineers, helping them to finesse their vision and tailor their project to the ever-evolving demands of their core audience.
As with any game-changer, there has been plentiful speculation about if and when the crowdsourcing bubble might burst. However, regardless of what form it takes in the future, contributions from design engineers will always be necessary for manufacturers who want to remain at the forefront of demand and innovation. First hand contributions from professional engineers and hobbyists can help businesses of all sizes to keep producing better, more sophisticated tools and technologies – and that’s good news for everybody.
Have you ever utilised crowdsourcing to help fund your project or initiative? With so many start-ups now entering the market, is there a risk that crowdfunding fatigue could set in? Share your thoughts and experiences with us in the comments section below.
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