Right. Different perspectives. Things don't always fit neatly into the same box. So some degree I wonder whether FTDI is more of a niche market/small volume

Right. Different perspectives. Things don't always fit neatly into the same box. So some degree I wonder whether FTDI is more of a niche market/small volume product than mass market. If you are making a high volume consumer device it behooves you to optimize cost by using microprocessors with integrated USB capabilities rather than resorting to a USB to serial chip. In other cases the USB to serial approach is attractive because either you have a very small micro or a situation where a full stack OS doesn't exist in the device. As an example, an 8051 derivative would be easier to interface with an FTDI chip. A TI (or whatever) 32 bit micro already comes with USB and there's plenty of support in the way of embedded driver code to make it work. It'd be interesting just how FTDI's market share is segmented. Not sure this information is available anywhere.