I rather like the comment on inside these radios are just a Baofeng, exactly the same comment could be applied to Icom, Yaesu, TYT, Kenwood and dozens of others. I have quite an expensive repeater - inside the unit are what appear to be two separate portables, with the repeater specific functions hard wired to pads on the boards. So many RF products nowadays have shared heritage, and there does seem to be in hi-tech, rapidly developing products a simplicity. A manufacturer does not waste their research and development costs when they can source proven, reliable modules from a common source, and simply use them differently. SDR radio is a good example - the differences are in presentation and control software. I've been selling imported radios for a long time and when you view the CPS software you start to see similarities - the radios use a similar programming system, and even the order of the columns in the CPS is the same - occasionally a new column with a unique function appears, but the differences are in the folders, the grouping and the management. I'd bet the actual critical RF and audio stages are common in so many brands. So few of the stages inside radios now are branded, they're just boxes with numbers. If you buy a Harris or one of the British equivalent products, the things are branded throughout - almost every internal module is designed by them. If you buy alternative and cheaper products, then to get those prices, alternative design is needed.
One of the market areas I import good for is entertainment lighting - moving head gizmos. Again, the Chinese products are a tenth of the price of the premier products, and the reason for this is exactly like the radio market. I think maybe the same process happens - in radio I do not know, but I do know for the lights. There will be a number of very small businesses in a large complex. One might make plastic moulded cases. One will make power supplies, another does the lenses, the rotating patterns (gobos), prisms on slot in modules. Another makes the PCBs and control systems, another specialises in programming the chips. Others do pan and tilt mechanisms. The small business builds their own, unique product from all the bits available - they source everything within walking distance - then their job is simply to assemble them. They don't even box them up - packaging is another small business, and shipping another. Within one city block - they can make anything. I can actually ask for a product they already have to be changed - you say I like XYZ but need a zoom, not a prism. They say no problem mr Paul but you must buy 100. I say I need only ten, they say if I buy 20 price will be ..... and I say great, pay them and they arrive in about a month. No research and development, just a new slot in unit, chip reprogramming and job done. Will the zoom be sharp and in focus as it runs? No idea, they've never done it before - I'm the guinnea pig. If I want, I can even have them badged with my business name - often these are for projects where that wouldn't matter, and you might get their idea of a brand name. Some good, some crazy - Hot poodle was the best one. No idea how Google translate suggested that as a good brand, but those labels got removed pronto!
I've now been importing these things for 14 years and have over a hundred still in my hire stock. I have currently 6 in the faulty pile, and they become a source of spares as there is so much commonality. I do a few premiere productions each year with sizeable hire budgets, and the lights from the brand leaders that cost over ten grand are supplied with hot spares by the hire company. I have never done a show of this kind without a small team of maintenance people constantly swapping them out. A friend in the military tells me their expensive radios they use have the same problems, they are always sending faulty one back to the tecs for repair. Another friend fixes Motorolas as a job. We must accept that Baofengs (which I don't sell simply because I cannot make money out of them) are disposable radios that are exceptionally good for the price. If they break, they go in the bin. If you spend money on premium products, that's a perfectly good choice if it suits you, but all the users care about is ion they work - and often just if they themselves can work them. Baofengs might just scare people with the buttons. Those dirt cheap 888s for example. They cost less than an Icom battery pack. If you drop one and it breaks, what have you lost? For some people this is economic sense. If the failure of a radio is likely to cause loss of life - then buying cheap is not sensible. If failure causes inconvenience and the need to go back to the kitchen for another radio, that's rather mild. We are radio enthusiasts, but the average user of radios uses them like a tool - the same as a biro, or screwdriver. As enthusiasts we have favourites and that's fine - but it means we will never agree. That too is fine.
