Samsung - the worlds largest single-brand TV manufacturer announced plans to end manufacturing LCD TV panels. By the time you read this then the doors to the factory will already be closed, metaphorically speaking.
https://www.flatpanelshd.com/news.php?subaction=showfull&id=1653980797
What happened?
Someone beat Samsung at their own game.
For the past couple of decades Samsung has been killing off its competitors and rivals by undercutting them on price due to it's ability to move to ever larger fabrication plant (bigger screens) thus driving down the unit cost of LCD panels. Lots of the Japanese manufacturers fell victim to the Korean giant. So did Philips in Europe. Now the tables have turned.
Who did this?
In a word, the Chinese.
There's a whole slew of companies most of us have never heard of working behind the scenes making LCD screens for TVs, monitors, laptops and tablets. Firms such as AU Optronics and BOE started out making lower grade panels to go in cheap tellies and monitors. They supplied another bunch of behind-the-scenes companies such as Vestel in Turkey and UMC in Slovakia who bought up the rights to put brand badges on their products. Your Sharp, Toshiba, Hitachi, Bush, Fergusson, Finlux, Thomson along with a whole bunch of brands familiar to supermarket shoppers such as Technika, Wharfedale, Polaroid, Medion and others came mostly from these factories. The cry of "Forget the quality, feel the width" followed by shouts I got it for cheap" (hate the grammar in that phrase) put power behind the manufacturing muscle of all concerned.
What does this mean for the future?
Samsung is still the world's biggest single brand TV manufacturer. TTBOMK #2 is still LG. Samsung will continue to manufacturer TVs, just not with its own panels. The irony is staggering. This is how it was for all the brands that Samsung and LG killed.
https://www.flatpanelshd.com/news.php?subaction=showfull&id=1653980797
What happened?
Someone beat Samsung at their own game.
For the past couple of decades Samsung has been killing off its competitors and rivals by undercutting them on price due to it's ability to move to ever larger fabrication plant (bigger screens) thus driving down the unit cost of LCD panels. Lots of the Japanese manufacturers fell victim to the Korean giant. So did Philips in Europe. Now the tables have turned.
Who did this?
In a word, the Chinese.
There's a whole slew of companies most of us have never heard of working behind the scenes making LCD screens for TVs, monitors, laptops and tablets. Firms such as AU Optronics and BOE started out making lower grade panels to go in cheap tellies and monitors. They supplied another bunch of behind-the-scenes companies such as Vestel in Turkey and UMC in Slovakia who bought up the rights to put brand badges on their products. Your Sharp, Toshiba, Hitachi, Bush, Fergusson, Finlux, Thomson along with a whole bunch of brands familiar to supermarket shoppers such as Technika, Wharfedale, Polaroid, Medion and others came mostly from these factories. The cry of "Forget the quality, feel the width" followed by shouts I got it for cheap" (hate the grammar in that phrase) put power behind the manufacturing muscle of all concerned.
What does this mean for the future?
Samsung is still the world's biggest single brand TV manufacturer. TTBOMK #2 is still LG. Samsung will continue to manufacturer TVs, just not with its own panels. The irony is staggering. This is how it was for all the brands that Samsung and LG killed.
"If you wait by the river long enough, the bodies of your enemies will float by"
- often misattributed to Sun Tzu
- often misattributed to Sun Tzu
, although off-topic, I have long been thinking of starting a thread about companies etc. that have names that are lost to the depths of time...
