The fact that TP-Link products are vastly better and cheaper than all their numerous competitors is indeed a bit strange. You have to either think that all the people at Linksys, Netgear, D-link, etc. are incompetents or that something a bit out of the ordinary is going on at TP-Link...

I see that at the company I work at. US management at many companies is about doing the absolute minimum for a maximum of profit. It doesn’t allow for competence or long term investment so companies turn into empty shells.

It’s not that unheard of. Does anyone make a better $999 laptop than Apple? Nope, the MacBook Air is faster and gets better battery life with zero fans and basically nothing on the market compares. That doesn’t make Apple “suspicious” more than any other company.

TP-Link is the best for the same reason Apple is the best. They just have the momentum of being in the lead.

I would also say that TP-Link isn’t wildly and unrealistically cheaper or anything.

Their prosumer/business Omada lineup is clunky and kinda sucks compared to Ubiquiti.

Zyxel WiFi 7 APs are more competitively priced than basically anything last I checked.

the other companies want higher profit margins.

> You have to either think that all the people at Linksys, Netgear, D-link, etc. are incompetents

They are. "Profit oriented". I bought a D-Link router once. Only one (1) port out of 4 was working. Great product, i never want to see something like this again. /s

> I bought a D-Link router once. Only one (1) port out of 4 was working.

Did you return that obviously damaged merchandise for an undamaged replacement? If not, why not?

Eero used to be pretty close. Years ago, I used to stalk the subreddit despite never owning an Eero just because the (US based) devs would often drop knowledge bombs. AFAIK they wrote the entire software stack in house.

I have no idea if that's still the case, especially post AMZ, but worth looking into if so.

I miss the insider information. Some Redditors were not nice and they all left Reddit and their insider information stopped flowing, it's a shame, it was cool to see behind the development veil.

Eero was great before they were purchased by Amazon, cut to the bone, and went to shit as Amazon capitalized on their brand cachet. I miss them so :(

Are you speculating or do you have actual evidence of layoffs or other large cuts stemming from the acquisition? Link to old news articles perhaps?

I doubt the old guard was super pleased with the acquisition and many probably left voluntarily after seeing their dreams of profitable exit abruptly become acquihired by AMZN. But I don't actually know anything about what happened then. (I'm presently at eero, joined long after the acquisition... FWIW my experience isn't really consistent with your claims)

You have the inside track so I'll defer to most. But on /r/eero the devs (specifically one in particular) always responded and were very engaged with the community. That sort of thing is only possible in a small passionate company. I don't trust any Amazon hardware in my home so I am curious if they're as good as they were. What is your experience like working there?

Addendum: looks like rank-and-file employees were screwed and the execs cashed in hard[1]. There was a lot of attrition after that. So I guess Amazon didn't have to lay people off, they did it themselves.

[1]https://mashable.com/article/amazon-eero-wifi-router-sale

This was all before my time. I don't have the impression quality has deteriorated from past gens of the product, quite the opposite from where I'm sitting.

Working there is interesting. AMZN corporate can be a drag but I imagine that's true for any FAANG or part of any large company.

I’m sure there’s some way to inject advertising - otherwise it’s just leaving money on the table.

I'm old enough to remember most cable modems and set-top boxes being manufactured in the US.

They were... not great...

I am pretty sure the companies that made those, had a monopoly on them and charged $500 a piece went bankrupt too.

There is, but corporate greed doesn't allow it.