Industrial electronics has been classified so far as two big families with their own pros and cons that are summarized in the following chart:

 


In the reality of the complex EMBEDDED SYSTEM market, one of the user’s most difficult decisions is the dilemma of choosing between: “Make or Buy?”

In other words, is it better to choose existing products  (COTS) or to make a custom-built one?

An important choice, since it deeply influences the need to spend internal resources to the electronic product development and the decision to take care over the years of the complex problems linked to product evolution (life cycle).

A similar decision depends on the customer’s ability or desire to consider as "core business" the electronic part of itsproduct. If not, in case that the customer decides to focus his own design and production resources to his core business, while outsourcing the electronic platform (which often does not translate into product differentiation with respect to competitors) the alternative proposed by COTS electronics often does not completely match the customer’s technology and cost requirements.

In the difficult choice between COTS and CUSTOM electronics there are many things that need to be taken into consideration:


Today, thanks to PRIMA ELECTRONICS,
a third way exists: DOTS ELECTRONICS,
Dedicated-Off-The-Shelf®.