Omron releases ultracheap, tiny optical
communication devices
In the year 2002, Omron announced
its entry into the optical communications market. What
stunned the industry, however, was not the products
Omron would be developing, which in terms of performance
do not necessarily have any competitive advantage over
that of its competitors', but the revolutionary cost
reduction (as much as 90%) made possible through Omron's
proprietary manufacturing technology consisting of replication
(producing thousands of devices from a metal mold) rather
than traditional time-consuming and expensive fabrication
methods.
Why is this important? In recent years you have been
bombarded with talk of broadband's potential and buzz
words like FTTH (fiber-to-the-home) appear frequently
in the media. FTTH refers to the growing demand for
connecting optic fiber to our homes, or the "last
one mile." Compared to the so-called broadband
currently available in the form of DSL or cable modem,
fiber optic networks offer unlimited bandwidth, interactive
two-way services, and transmission speeds over 100 times
faster.
What has prevented FTTH from taking off is the exorbitant
cost barrier. Omron aims to destroy this barrier by
providing remarkably inexpensive, ultrasmall devices
used to connect fiber to the home.
