Greetings, fellow traveler. Amusingly, my user name gives me away. ;-)
I have a side business that makes a gadget for musical amplification. I don't want to "out" myself by identifying my business, but all of my products are purely analog circuits, used in a largely analog signal chain. Things could change, and they will, but like you say, my analog circuits are simpler and cheaper, and consume less power, than reasonable digital counterparts that I have any hope of designing and sourcing myself. Also, at least in the US, lack of high frequency signals simplifies the regulatory approval process.
By day, I design scientific equipment. There's almost always an analog circuit in between each sensor and the ADC. This is partly because each sensor requires a unique physical interface, that a general purpose ADC doesn't provide. The design team needs an "analog person," even if they need only one. Also, analog knowledge is valuable in troubleshooting digital systems, because a person with analog skills tends to understand things like circuits, power supplies, measurements, and so forth.
I have a side business that makes a gadget for musical amplification. I don't want to "out" myself by identifying my business, but all of my products are purely analog circuits, used in a largely analog signal chain. Things could change, and they will, but like you say, my analog circuits are simpler and cheaper, and consume less power, than reasonable digital counterparts that I have any hope of designing and sourcing myself. Also, at least in the US, lack of high frequency signals simplifies the regulatory approval process.
By day, I design scientific equipment. There's almost always an analog circuit in between each sensor and the ADC. This is partly because each sensor requires a unique physical interface, that a general purpose ADC doesn't provide. The design team needs an "analog person," even if they need only one. Also, analog knowledge is valuable in troubleshooting digital systems, because a person with analog skills tends to understand things like circuits, power supplies, measurements, and so forth.