When you open up a microwave or commercial television what do most companies use for their micro-controllers?
Sorry for the very open question. I think I heard years ago that most compaines used 8051's, but are they using ATMELS, PICS or what?
For example, would you get laughed at using an ATMEL or PIC in a commercial project that sells over a 1,000 units that you wanted to manufacture in China?
Thanks,
Cameron.
I think you misunderstand - you get laughed at if you want to manufacture units only in their thousands.
There are loads of PIC or Atmels lookalikes - most don't even have the luxury of a package.
(deleted)
I think maybe you are confusing Atmel with Arduino and Microchip with PICAXE or BASIC stamp. Both of these companies have sales in their last physical year in excess of $1.5B (billion) follars. And both companies operate their own fabrication and design facilities.
You are just as likely to find an AVR processor as a PIC processor embedded in commercial products, transportation, and consumer electronics. Both technologies are viable and robust and both companies have in house support software groups for design and programming tools.
You will not find Arduino official boards in mass-produced, high volume products because it is not cost effective and there are serious licensing issues with using the Arduino code and libraries that would increase cost (providing linkable object files). But most large companies have rather strict no-no policies about GPL code inclusion... So, while you are very likely to finfpd an AVR in a microwave, you are almost assured it was not built in the Arduino GUI.
Ray
cameronasmith:
would you get laughed at using an ATMEL or PIC in a commercial project
No.
Atmel chips are in an awful lot of things. You probably own several that you don't even know about.
Thanks, Guys. 
FYI:
OK, so my first thought was "Who is Renesas Electronics, never heard of them before?".
It turns out they are actually NEC, Hitachi and Mitsubishi combined, so no actual surprise then.
By far the majority of Atmel and Microchip MCUs go into commercial products. The hobby market (we) is miniscule.
BillO:
By far the majority of Atmel and Microchip MCUs go into commercial products. The hobby market (we) is miniscule.
I don't think many, if any of us ever thought otherwise.
Both of these companies have sales in their last physical year in excess of $1.5B (billion) follars.
I know currency trading is tricky but is it a folly?
If a chip had to rely on the hobby market it would be discontinued immediately. Thousands are such a small quantity that most manufacturers would not be interested in such a small volume. I used to design set top boxes and those sold in the several millions. We used all sorts of processors.
It is said that there are more ARM processors embedded in products than anything else.
Check out this communications board I got on eBay for chip recovery. The main chip arguably is an FPGA, but this board, a very high end board (certainly $5K or more - Digikey's price on the FPGA is $1500+),has an ATXMega192A3 Atmel processor for some purpose.
http://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=185128.0;attach=52621
http://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=185128.0;attach=52623
http://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=185128.0;attach=52635
pito:
FYI:
Very interesting. I would have thought TI a bit higher on this list as they have such a broad line, and their MCUs are considered among the best at very low power applications, and they kill on almost everything they do. Analog has a moderately broad line of sensor/precision ADC MCUs and I see they don't even make the list. SILabs the same and nowhere to be seen. 
Zilog nowhere to be seen either, maybe that isn't so much of a surprise.
Renasas and Freescale are obviously so high up the list because they own the automotive/white goods markets and have for a long time.
Paul__B:
BillO:
By far the majority of Atmel and Microchip MCUs go into commercial products. The hobby market (we) is miniscule.I don't think many, if any of us ever thought otherwise.
Maybe, but the OP's question indicated he might.