Opinion: For whom Tektronix’ licensing model makes sense
So far, this licensing model is unusual in the measurement instruments market. After all, it is something like buying a Ferrari at the price of a Volkswagen – only that you cannot switch to the second gear unless you pay extra. I can imagine that some users are not happy with the imagination that there is a very powerful instrument sitting on their bench but they are prevented from utilising its full potential. On the other hand, everybody who owns a computer (hence all of us) is familiar to upgrade models for software. It might be unusual to transplant this model to the measurement instrument domain but it is not at all revolutionary. This model simply reflects the fact that today software determines at a large extend the functionality and performance of a complex instrument.
The option to upgrade the instrument across multiple stages from entry level to its maximum configuration is owed to the observation the average working life of an oscilloscope in most cases is much longer than the design cycles – while an embedded design typically occupies an engineer a year or less, the scope lives on for about six to seven years. And since today’s embedded designs get more complex from generation to generation and require more sophisticated instrumentation, a user quickly finds himself in the situation that his good old scope does no longer keeps up with his needs. A field-upgradeable instrument is already a good thing to have in such a situation, and if the upgrade can be done as easily as in the case at hand – just by acquiring the respective dongle – it is a practical contribution to ease designer’s life. Only for users who do not need upgradeability at all this option is useless, but this is certainly a small minority among electronics designers
However, the dongle approach could prove to be the Achilles heel of Tektronix’ concept. While the company believes that the encryption is strong enough to rebuff any attempt to crack the code, hackers could find it an amusing pastime to decipher it – much like they were swift to publish ‘jailbreaks’ for the iPhone. Tektronix believes that the production volume of its upgradeable scopes is too low to justify such an effort, but I would not bet on it.
Talking about volume: Here lies the real reason for Tektronix’ software-centric approach: It allows the company to manufacture relatively high volumes of this device and thus achieve substantial economies of scale. The hardware is (widely) equal, the software is the differentiator – this recipe could soon gain traction in the instrumentation industry.
Related articles:
Tektronix tidies up designer’s desk: six instruments in one box
If you enjoyed this article, you will like the following ones: don't miss them by subscribing to :
