My perspective is only from the point of my city.

The market over here is entirely distributed. There are very few people who consume 10k pieces a month. Most people buy it in quantities of 100~500 a month. But the number of buyers buying these is more. So w.r.t. the shop owner, he is selling these chips in 10k pieces.


There are importers, who import a whole container of electronic stuff. This stuff is cleared off with a day or two, to wholesalers. There is chain of wholesalers-retailers, who can supply this stuff in very low quantities, as low as 10 Nos.

Even then, we can get an AT89C52 at Rs.35/- (approx. $0.75) for quantity >100.

In a way, this whole market is dependant on these importers, and not the representatives of chip makers. If I go to a representative of Atmel, he will never supply AT89C52, but will insist on supplying AT89S52, which is higher cost than AT89C52, even today.

So, the day the containers stop...HAVOC !!!

Long time back, Atmel stopped manufacturing AT89C52, but the fresh ones are still available here, because the consumption of these chips is still pretty huge. And since the consumption is huge, the containers keep on coming in.
This is a circle.

So even if it is Arghmel (sorry Erik), it is still the My best option for the products that I mentioned in my previous post. Others might think otherwise, I do not deny it.