Bravia TVs by TCL could arrive in 2027
Oh my god. I specifically bought SONY to avoid Chinese TVs in 2022, when I was still on the China-bad train. SONY was pretty much the only brand except for the Koreans not owned by a PRC firm. I guess it’ll be TCL the next time I have to buy one.
Panasonic’s TV division is owned by China?
I actually wondered about Panasonic when I saw the parent comment and checked. Didn’t comment then, but probably should have, if others had the same thought.
https://www.slashgear.com/1846438/panasonic-tvs-who-makes-where-built/
Panasonic used to manufacture televisions in its own factories, initially in Japan, and then in other regions such as China, India, and the Czech Republic. However, between 2015 and 2022, it closed its Panasonic-owned factories and now outsources all TV manufacturing to other companies. Its mid- to high-end ranges are currently made by Chinese electronics manufacturer TCL. TCL’s primary manufacturing plants are in China, Vietnam, and Mexico. Most Panasonic TVs sold to U.S. customers are made in manufacturing plants in Tijuana or Ixtapaluca in Mexico. TCL also has manufacturing and assembly plants in Australia, Brazil, India, and Pakistan.
I think theirs is also not PRC-owned but if I recall correctly they’re not sold in Canada.
I always hated TCL, it’s so 1980s. I mean the syntax is quite inconsistent and lacks modern features.
Europe needs to resurrect its brands…
You mean just the brand, or the manufacturing?
I mean, branding something is trivial.
But if you want to manufacture it in Europe, then you have to compete against companies who are going to be manufacturing in China, and manufacturing wages are going to be lower in China, so it’s going to be at a price disadvantage.
I was just commenting yesterday where some guy wanted to buy a keyboard out of the EU or Canada instead of a Unicomp keyboard because he was pissed at the US. He was asking about buying a Cherry keyboard. Cherry just shut down their production in Germany after cheaper Chinese competition clobbered 'em.
If you want to have stuff manufactured in Europe, you’ve got kinda limited options.
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Get some kind of patriotic “buy European” thing going, where people are intrinsically willing to pay a premium for things made in Europe.
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Ban imports. My guess is that in general, Europe will not do this unless they have some negative externality, like national security, associated with the import (think, say, Russian natural gas), since it’s economically-inefficient.
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Leverage some kind of other comparative advantage. Like, okay. Maybe one can’t have competitive unskilled assembly line workers. But maybe if there’s really amazing, world-leading industrial automation, so that there’s virtually no human labor marginal cost involved, and one scales production way up, it’s possible to eliminate enough of the assembly line labor costs to be competitive.
The market controls are the least of the problems for reshoring TV production. The knowhow for producing panels hasn’t existed here for a long time. Pretty sure that’s also the case for various other inputs. We’re currently in the position China used to be in, when we had the active manufacturing and knowhow, before we built the same factories and transferred that knowhow to China. There’s a long path via re-researching our way into it. The fast path is getting FDI from China, or Korea who still can produce TVs, for now.
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Sony is giving up all their good businesses…laptops, phones, and now TVs. Fucking sucks.
All because they want to focus on movies, I’m sure. Guess I won’t be surprised when their audio division goes too.
That doesn’t make sense. From what I have read about Sony, all of their departments/corporations are independently run. Which is why there is no tech sharing/brand synergy (🤮) between Sony phones, camera, TV, PlayStation etc. unlike Apple products.
Such a shame.
Their laptops were known for having root kit drm in them. Their phones are only available in select markets and are massively overpriced (in NA anyway).
Aside from cameras/components and the Playstation, they seem keen to shooting themselves in the foot. I have a bravia TV and it’s… a TV with barebones ‘smart’ features that aren’t used. So kinda following the overpriced trend there too…
Hey I’ve seen this in the nineties. Philips anyone?
I misread the headline thinking it said “TLC is taking over Sony’s TV” and thought the TV channel formally known as the learning channel was taking over and thought “this IS very unexpected”
Don’t go chasin’ waterfalls
Tender Love & Care for your tele.
