Electronic prototyping and product prototyping can be connected or separated depending on the stage you are with your business idea. As an entrepreneur, you may have developed the aesthetics or mold of the product to launch, but in order to have a functional device, you need to go deeper into the electronic prototype design.
This will allow your product to be functional and tested to confirm how viable your business idea is. In this article, you will learn what electronic prototyping is and why you need it.
What is electronic prototyping?
Whether you want to develop a game controller, camera, tracking device, wearable or any product that needs the use of electronics, you will need a PCB (Printed Circuit Boards), along with other components.
The PCB is the main hardware that gives life to your product. This is where it all starts. Maybe you have a concept in mind or have developed the physical product, but you also need to consider if this will function properly with the PCB.
That’s where prototyping electronic circuits come into play. Your product needs a special electronic design, and since it is your creation (innovative), it will need a customized diagram of circuits and connections to make it work.
This is something that needs to be tested many times until the product works properly and becomes viable from the engineering perspective.
Why do you need electronic prototyping?
Smartphones, tablets, computers, wearables and webcams have something in common. Their electronic product design is unique, and they are made of different components that can’t be seen at plain sight but that fulfill a specific purpose. What is this purpose? To function according to the brand’s specification, and this requirement came from a creative mind that showed a new idea to the world.
For example, the location of a button or a small screen plays a big role in how expensive your final product will be. The wrong location or design could cost you thousands of dollars above your initial budget. Why? Because if you are building something exclusive, it will need special and expensive molds. If you build something similar to what is being sold in the market (let’s say smartphones), but with an innovation that stands out from other brands (software, AI, functions, performance), the mass production may be cheaper and easier to carry out.
Don’t worry if this sounds too complex. If you hire a specialized electronic prototyping company, you will get professional help on how to adapt your design to the electronic components and make it work. It’s difficult to tell how fast the electronic prototype development can be. The only way to find out is by testing it several times using different models and combinations of the circuits, components, and connections.
Electronic prototype development
Trip Hawkins, the founder of Electronic Arts said, “There’s a basic principle about consumer electronics: it gets more powerful all the time and it gets cheaper all the time.” Remember when game consoles were introduced to the market? They were expensive and difficult to produce. Nowadays, you can find almost one game console in a house in any country.
According to WePC, the PlayStation 2 sold 157.68 million units and the PlayStation 4 has sold 112 million units around the world. Besides, they mention the global gaming market is expected to grow from 40.6 billion dollars in 2019 to 67.1 billion dollars by 2023.
This is proof that technology is advancing at a high rate, with lower costs and therefore, easier to produce. Do you imagine building a technological device that can reach the entire world in just a few months and generate millions of dollars?
Thanks to the PCB benefits, it is easier than before to build complex systems into a small piece of hardware. If this works along with hardware design services, the final result of the product will be better.
Electronic prototyping may not be something you have been in contact with or that you understand completely, but it doesn’t mean you cannot dream of creating a great product. If you are an innovator, you need to take risks.
New technologies are possible thanks to people like you, entrepreneurs that see life from a different perspective and that want to change or improve the behavior of the consumers and how they interact with each other.
DeepSea Developments can give you the best electronics prototyping services, since we have worked with industries like consumer electronics, smart home, agrotech and smart farming, smart cities, healthcare, mobility, asset and fleet management.
Our team has the expertise in product development outsourcing. That means you don’t need to wait for a long time to get a functional prototype. Whether you are in California, Florida, Washington, or in different parts of the world, your business idea will be developed with professionalism and the highest quality.
