Hitachi exits the TV market or pushes down Japanese electronic dominoes

The news that Hitachi TV maker Hitachi will formally withdraw from the liquid crystal and plasma TV manufacturing market has attracted considerable attention both inside and outside the industry. However, this seemingly resolute withdrawal is not entirely thorough. Hitachi said that it will not give up on the development and sales of TV new technologies and will retain the brand. The industry generally believes that the fact that the Hitachi and color TV business's cutting off the facts shows that its strategy in the field of consumer electronics development has been unclear. It has been hesitant whether or not to completely withdraw, and this is exactly the common problem of Japanese electronics companies.

Hitachi Abandons Production Remains Brand

In recent years, there have been rumors that Hitachi will withdraw from the TV market. Hitachi has announced that it will stop producing TV products in Japan before September this year. As early as 2009, Hitachi has completely outsourced its overseas television production business. This means that the 56-year-old color TV giant began to change its manufacturing strategy.

In recent years, the pressure of appreciation of the yen has continued to increase the cost of production of Japanese consumer electronics manufacturing companies, causing them to fall into a loss-making situation. Among them, Sony's color TV business suffered losses for seven consecutive years. Toshiba and Matsushita not only suffered huge losses, but also began to be marginalized. Many Japanese-funded enterprises began planning to exit the color TV business. Hitachi is no exception. For what kind of cooperation method will be adopted between the future and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Zhang Chenyin, the manager of public relations department of Hitachi (China) Co., Ltd., did not give a clear reply as of press time.

Or leave a trail for a comeback

Hitachi's retention of brand and R&D sales does not seem to be just for licensing fees. In recent years, Hitachi’s actions in the consumer electronics market have been erratic.

Hitachi TV was once a leader in the Chinese market, but since 2005, Hitachi’s performance in the flat-panel television business has been unsatisfactory. Plasma TVs and plasma screens are at a loss, and Hitachi was forced to stop production of plasma screens. However, at the end of last year, Hitachi once again shot up its display business and signed a strategic agreement with two other Japanese electronics giants Sony and Toshiba to integrate its panel business and jointly establish a Japanese display company. At the same time, in May last year, Hitachi stated that it would return to the Chinese market in the form of OEM. At that time, industry insiders analyzed that Hitachi’s strategy in the consumer electronics field was somewhat ambiguous.

Appliance analyst Liang Zhenpeng believes that although Hitachi’s strategy has been to divert civilian consumer electronics business to commercial energy, transportation and other fields. However, every time it is peeled off, Hitachi always hopes to leave its own color TV business behind. It is understood that the Hitachi display factory is mainly engaged in the development of OLED display technology, and this time Hitachi did not completely withdraw from the color TV business may be to OLED technology (OLED technology details) when the rise again.

Japanese electronics are generally indecisive

In fact, Japanese companies are not rare in consumer electronics. Six years after its withdrawal from the international mobile phone market, Matsushita Mobile Communications, a subsidiary of the Panasonic Group, announced earlier this year that it will launch smartphones for the European market in March 2012. Panasonic also plans to sell smartphones in China and Central and South America, aiming to expand its global smartphone sales to 14 million units by 2015. Panasonic’s strategy has always been to strip the manufacturing industry and transform into the green energy sector. However, seeing the huge profits of the smart phone market, Panasonic could not help but kill a carbine.

Recently, Sony's wholly-owned acquisition of Sony Ericsson shares was approved by the European Union. Sony Ericsson was re-introduced by Sony after several years of losses. According to people familiar with the matter, if it weren’t for smartphones, Sony had already abandoned its investment in the mobile phone market.

In addition, in February 2010, a Toshiba spokesman said that Toshiba Corp. would probably withdraw from LCD product manufacturing. However, in August 2010, Toshiba had just married TCL to establish Toshiba Video Products (China) Co., Ltd.

Liang Zhenpeng pointed out that the Japanese companies' mentality is very complex. On the one hand, considering the appreciation of the yen, the consumer electronics sector has a meager profit, so they are always ready to withdraw. However, companies such as Samsung and LG have not been reconciled to obtain huge profits in the areas where they once had an uphill battle. , so it still retains part of the factory or sales channels and reserves the technology to wait for the day to come back. Without a clear strategy, however, it is simply not possible for companies to make profits. The annual report of the annual report of the Japanese-funded company's entire group is the best example. Of course, in addition to the whole machine, electronic components are the traditional strengths of Japan.