Market Dominance / Country

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Thread Starter

Mark

Is it fair to say that the field is still dominated by Siemens in Europe(im in UK), and AB rest of world? I work with OMRON PLC's which are excellent, and always ask myself if i'd be better off concentrating on Siemens in order to better my skills, and make more of a commodity of myself in the contracting world...Or do the likes of Omron have dominance anywhere?...(I would like to break away from my employer and go freelance at some stage).
 
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Hakan Ozevin

This is quite a deep question and I am astonished why no one answered it yet. I think that, all PLC vendors AB, Siemens, Omron, etc. have nearly the same prices, nearly the same technology and nearly the same technical support. Otherwise these companies could not survive in todays global economy and competition. Therefore, there must be some points to explain why Siemens is dominating in Europe, why A-B in US and why Omron in Japan. The reason can be found if we look at the history. 10 or 15 years ago, the PLC's were not so much used as today. The market was not deep. PLC vendors should concentrate on some "neighbourhood" markets to which they can sell and provide technical support with marginal profit. As a result, we saw a domination of Siemens in Europe, AB in US and etc. Now, PLC's are world wide known and everyone *can* sell its product in everywhere in the world. But PLC's are not consumer goods. You can exchange your washing machine as you like. In plc case, you have to replace your spare parts, you have to educate your workers and maintenance engineers and replace your software. As a result, in practice it is not possible to replace historical attitudes so easily. I have a customer which has 400 Siemens PLC's and its not possible to sell them any other PLC. You asked if it is it fair or not. Well, the market is always looking for the easiest and the standard (their standard) solution. And I believe that what is fair is what the customer/market asks. Best regards, Hakan Ozevin
 
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