Samsung, maker of flaming phones and exploding washing machines.. 🙁 Not to mention that front loading washer I bought that fried its electronics in just 4 years; wife hated that machine so much she would not allow me to repair it when I volunteered to do it.
I wonder what this means for iconic brands like JBL, Lexicon and Mark Levinson. Will they be plums or pits in the portfolio of acquired Harman divisions or will they quickly be spun off?
I wonder what this means for iconic brands like JBL, Lexicon and Mark Levinson. Will they be plums or pits in the portfolio of acquired Harman divisions or will they quickly be spun off?
It feels like what's happened to the car industry, storied brands sold to Chinese (Volvo) and Indian companies (Jaguar, Land Rover).
I guess we've got to face reality, that these iconic brands are no longer iconic enough to attract a customer base large/profitable enough for investors.
It's too easy to criticise countries like China or S.Korea as if they're incapable of quality. If the decision to offshore is to dramatically reduce costs, then that's what you get. Otherwise, the Chinese make fine products for Apple. Tim Cook (Apple CEO) demystified this in interviews. Namely, manufacturing and tooling skills have largely been lost in the US so to get quality and quantity, it's China now.
Consumers can speak with their wallets. The current normal is that people are OK and happy to buy new products all the time at competitive prices, exploding and all. I have no expectation that my TV or washing machine even will last 5 years, especially not with the Internet of Things and all... 🙂
I guess we've got to face reality, that these iconic brands are no longer iconic enough to attract a customer base large/profitable enough for investors.
It's too easy to criticise countries like China or S.Korea as if they're incapable of quality. If the decision to offshore is to dramatically reduce costs, then that's what you get. Otherwise, the Chinese make fine products for Apple. Tim Cook (Apple CEO) demystified this in interviews. Namely, manufacturing and tooling skills have largely been lost in the US so to get quality and quantity, it's China now.
Consumers can speak with their wallets. The current normal is that people are OK and happy to buy new products all the time at competitive prices, exploding and all. I have no expectation that my TV or washing machine even will last 5 years, especially not with the Internet of Things and all... 🙂
Been driving 45+ years -- for the first time in my life the front axle of my vehicle went out of "true" and had to be replaced. Volvo uses engineering steels from guess where.
If you ever wonder why some Volvo headlights on the same vehicle illuminate at different intensities -- guess where the wiring harnesses are made.
I can't speak for today, but as of 3 years ago Apple phones are made by Foxconn in the same complex (actually a small city) that made Motorola and Nokia phones. As long as you had a watchdog team in their facility at all times, they indeed made excellent stuff. As soon as the overseeing eyes are gone........cost is king. The customer specified reels come off the pick and place machine, and the cheap stuff goes on.
I declined the privilege of touring Foxconn, and even let my passport lapse to prevent being "volunteered." I had several friends visit while we were all employed at Motorola. No good stories come out of that place. And yes, the suicide nets are real.
Mot decided one day that they didn't need the mid tier engineering team any more, so they laid off 355 people at once. With that much engineering talent turned loose, several big names came to town and set up shop. The major players were RIM (Blackberry) and Foxconn. Yes, the Chinese company hired about 150 ex Motorola engineers to sit in a building about 2 miles from the Motorola plant, and design phones for Motorola!
Several of my friends worked there. It took Foxconn about 3 years to learn how to design their own phones from them, so that facility has since been closed. Lets just say there is a totally different design philosophy......cost is king.......note the common thread here.
I am typing this on a computer I built myself, but all of the components are of foreign origin, mostly Chinese except for a Taiwan made motherboard (none of my friends will buy Foxconn branded mother boards, read the reviews), and who knows where Intel makes their chips. It is connected to two TV sets for displays, one is a 40 inch 1080 that cost me $150 and the other is a 43 inch 4K that cost me $229 Chinese, yes, and they work pretty good.
My 1999 Volvo V70 was made in Belgium. It had the mystery headlight syndrome and it was pre - Chinese, and probably pre - Ford. Usually a swift kick to the fender on the dim side would restore proper lighting. Of course it usually happened on a rainy night.
All the insulation, and indeed much of the interior plastic in that car had become very brittle from the Florida heat (black car). The headlight wiring is too thin for the current it carries so it becomes warm to the touch in normal operation. Add some Florida heat, humidity and salt air.... the insulation crumbles and the terminals corrode. WD40 helps for a while.
If you went too fast on the summer rain soaked Florida roads the car would suddenly do a brain freeze. The dash goes dark, the transmission goes into 3rd regardless of the selector, and the engine limits at about 2500 RPM. Putting the trans into "N" would however allow you to turn off the key and restart the car while moving. Slam it back into drive and keep on going. That will freak out your friends!
I loved that old car, but I no longer trusted it enough for my 2500 mile road trips.
Bosch? Didn't they make some of the worst car electrical parts in the world..... have they improved in time?
-RM
-RM
Yeah, as a corollary to Pano's comment Bosch automotive is pretty much at the other end of the quality spectrum.
Magneti Marelli, now there is a name I have not heard in a long, long time.. lol
Not quite as bad as the prince of darkness, but close.
Not quite as bad as the prince of darkness, but close.
Having owned a Russian vehicle, and experienced many more, we used to joke that the Lucas family had a Russian branch called Lucasov. Their work was even more evil than their British cousins.
Just bought a 65" 4K UHD, etc Vizio. After being quite happy with a couple of older smaller LGs, but not quite wanting to dig deep for an OLED, this was a helluva deal at $1289 at Costco. Picture is excellent and the approx equivalent LG was $600 more.
My wife and I were driving into NYC one very early Sunday morning and got rear-ended by an MB 2 seater which had been hit by a bimmer 3xx! This in the Lincoln Tunnel.
The MB and bimmer were totalled. We had to replace the plastic part of the Volvo wagon but the car suffered no major damage. That's why I bought an XC90 for ferrying around the grand-kids.
I got a Ford Expedition to go between OH and NJ, probably put 2,000 miles on it every month.
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