索尼_三星_TCL的技术发展模式

1、The Technology Catch up Models of Sony, Samsung and TCL and Their Future in the 21st CenturyTable of Content:1. Introduction. P.22. The Technology catch up models of Sony, Samsung and TCLi. Sony The electronics giant born after WWII. P.2-4ii. SamsungThe speedy late starter. . . P.4-6iii. TCL The lat

2、e comer with alternative catch up model. . P.6-73. Illustration from the current FPDTV marketi.Failure of Sony in transition to digital era. P.8-9ii. Technology catch up of Samsung in digital era. . P.9iii. TCL nourished in the emerging market. . P.104.Future of Sony, Samsung and TCLi.Sony Regain th

3、e lead.P.11ii. SamsungExtend the scope of invention. . P.12iii. TCL Climb up the market hierarchy. P.12-135.Conclusion.P.136.Source. P.14-151. IntroductionAfter World War II, Japan imitated the technology from more advanced western world, mainly US to speed up its post-war redevelopment. Some Japane

4、se companies further modified the learnt technologies and became the leading positions in the respective areas. This can be viewed by Sony in electronics industry and Toyota in automobile industry.However, in the beginning of 21 st century, Japansleading position seems to be shrunken by other late c

5、omers. For example, Samsung successfully took over the market leader position in the Flat Panel Display TV (FPDTV) market; while Applecompletely faked out Sonys MiniDiscs(MD) by iPod. Even in the mid to low end market, the Japanese brands become less and less noticeable by consumers. When we look in

6、to the home appliance and electronics market in China, the market is now dominated by the late comers such as TCL and Haier. Furthermore, these later comers are now actively globalizing.In the following discussion, the technology catch up process of the electronics players, Sony of Japan, Samsung of

7、 Korea and TCL of China, will be discussed respectively. After the evaluation of the past, the future in the coming more regional integrated Asia will also be assessed2. The Technology catch up models of Sony, Samsung and TCLi. Sony The electronics giant born after WWIIWhen we look into the history

8、of Sony, It is suggested Sony has went through the original equipment manufacturer (OEM), own design manufacture (ODM) and thenown brand manufacture (OBM) stages. 1In 1946, the year after Japans defeat inWorld War II, Sony was incorporated as the Tokyo Telecommunication Engineering Corporation (TTEC

9、) with investment of 190,000 yen and 20 employees. Sony produces vacuum tube voltmeters and communication device. It even manufactured electric rice cookers and electric floorboards in order to survive. At that time, Sony is in the stage of OEM which produced simple goods while learnt assembly proce

10、ss from overseas.The founder of Sony, Ibuka and Morita, saw the U.S. military s tape recorder and thought this product has a bright future. However, Sony has no technology at all. After many experiment, as well as the purchase of a patented magnetic recording technology, Sony produced its first reco

11、rder that weighted 45kg. It did not sell eventually and triggered Sony to improve the recorder and finally launched a new recorder with 13kg only, and began to sell. This 13kg improved recorder not only helped Sony to enter into the market, but also signaled Song step into the ODM stages.Sony learnt

12、 deigns and innovation skills in this ODM stage, in which the most significant product was the transistor radio. Sony learnt the transistor technology by sending engineer to US factories and then building its own machine in Japan. Sony was not the first company to produce transistor radio, but Sony

13、determine to modify the product design by reducing the size, making the product small enough to fit into a shirt pocket. This small sized transistor radio was finally launched in 1955 and become a significant hit, which brought Sony a major success in its ODM stage.In the 1960s, Sony developed Trini

14、tron technology, which radically upgraded thequality of color TV displays. Its CRT TV, based on Trinitron technology, was verypopular. In 1979, Sony launched the Walkman that gave Sonys biggest success. Sony subsequently produced high-quality computer monitors, home VTRs, 3.5 inch floppy disks, CDs,

15、 MiniDiscs and DVD. All these innovations required Sony extensive R&D effort to create new technology standard to the industry. At this stage, Sony solely depended on its own R&D and we can say; Sony completely stepped into OBM stage and become an electronics giant in the industries.19551968

16、19791982Transistor RadioTrinitron Color TVWalkmanCD Player1985199219941997HandyCamMini DiscPlay StationDVD2Sonys remarkable invention throughout the yearsii. SamsungThe speedy late starter3Samsung Electronics had no technological capability when it was first established in 1969. Until the late 1970s

17、, Samsung Electronics was capable of nothing more than assembly, and it imported all its key components from Japanese suppliers. Even when Samsung produce its own products, many were of extremely poor quality. During this period, Samsung was staying in the OEM stage which assembly and produced simpl

18、e goods.A turning point for Samsung was its entry into the semiconductor business by acquiring Korea Semiconductor, an almost bankrupt company. Samsung save the company by bringing Japanese engineers to transfer technology to his own engineers, improving production facilities and reorganizing workfo

19、rces. The semiconductor business was gradually stabilized in 1980s. On the foundation of the technology developed in semi-conductors, Samsung chose to produce DRAMs, because Samsung believe the demand for memory chips would rise in the future. The decision was proved to be wise and also brought Sams

20、ung into another stageOBM stage.Samsung keened on developing the technology on DRAMs while, at that time, Japan and US are the main DRAMs producers. Samsung employed highly-trained engineers with most of them having working experiences in US firm. Samsung even set up a US subsidiary with R&D cen

21、ter and prototype production facilities. Finally, Samsung produced 256K DRAMs which met the increasingly demand at 1987. In early 1990s, Samsung not only become the DRAMs supplier with largest market share but also become the technology leader in this area. When Japanese producers introduced the 4M

22、DRAM, Samsung was only slightly behind. Samsung caught up to Japaneseproducers with the introduction of 16M DRAM, and surpassedthem with the introduction of 64M DRAM. Samsung has continued to maintain this lead through its production of the first Giga DRAM chip. In this stage, Samsung has already mo

23、ve into ODM, which Samsung has the innovation skill in making the existing product, DRAMs, with globally highest standard.In mid-1990s, Samsung decided to pour capital gained in the memory businessinto the R&D of Flat Display Panel (FPD). Samsung then outflanked Japanese firms by starting 12-inc

24、h line when Japanesecompetitors were still producing 11-inch models. Because of Samsung aggressive investment, Samsung gained a profit of 1 trillion won in 1999. It continued to pour more capital into R&D, value and supply4chain and eventually developed 17-inch, 32-ich and 42-inch panels. Finall

25、y,Samsungbecome worldsnumber one position in FPD TV segment in 2006. In the FDP area, Samsung successfully moved into OBM, in which Samsung design and developed the new product and created industries standard.iii. TCL The late comer with alternative catch-up modelWhen comparing the catch up models o

26、f Sony and Samsung, they share manysimilarities. They both started with borrowed foreign technology and went through modification on the borrowed technology, and finally mastered the skills to invent its own products by progressive R&D. Sony and Samsung went through the typical catch-up process

27、from OEM to ODM and then OBM.However, the Chinese companies like TCL; they catch up the technology not by extensive modification on borrowed technology and R&D process to invent the new technology. Instead, they gain the required technology by technology outsourcingstrategy. Technology imports a

28、re the traditional source for Chinese firm. 5For a long time before 1999, industrial enterprise spent more money on technology importation than own R&D. Although R&D has received more attention later, technology imports still matter very much for production. In 2002, of the R&D expenditu

29、res by large and midsize companies, two-third went to technology imports.The catch up model of Chinese companies can be briefly illustrated by TCL, aconsumer electronics corporation established at 1980. Similar to early Sony and Samsung, TCL do not have technology background and focused on producing

30、 simple products like cassetteand telephone. In late 1990s, TCL decided that FPD TV will have a blooming demand in the future, but TCL has no technology in FPD TV . TCL started to acquire and joint venture with the foreign companies related to the LCDtechnology. For example, 6TCL created a joint ven

31、ture celled TTE Corporation with Thomson, a French company. The new venture has the capability of producing 20 million TV sets, making it one of the largest TV makers in the world. TCL continued to develop its product by technology outsourcing. TCL spent relatively little on R&D but, by contract

32、ing out and merging new technology firms. TCL final become one of the leading brand in FPD TV market of China.Simple activitiesComplex activitiesCatch up stageOEMODMOBMSonyVacuum tube voltmetersTransistor RadioWalkman, Home VTR, CD,Rice cookerTrinitron Color TVMD, DVD, Play stationSamsungElectric Fa

33、nDRAMsFDPTVCRT TVTCLCassetteFDPTV?TelephoneTable showing the examples of product that Sony, Samsung and TCL produce in different stage of technology catch up: Sony and Samsung share the similar catch up model by starting with borrowed technology and grew up with own R&Ds, while TCL rapidly catch

34、 up to ODM stage by technology outsourcing strategy3. Illustration from the current FPDTV market situation7In 2009, Samsung recorded 17.2% world market share in FPDTV market, nearlyone in five televisions shipped during 2009 was Samsung. It is encouraging news for Samsung because there was no brand

35、could occupy 20% of the market since the first TV was sold. While, Sony only had 5.9% market share, even lower than TCL whichhad 6.6% market share.8 That could one of the reasons why Samsung surpassed Sonyin the “Most Valuable Brands 2009”, in which Samsung ranked 20 and Sony ranked26.此FPDTV Market

36、share of different brands 200917.2%SamsungSony5.9%48.6%TCL6.6%LG14.8%Panasonic6.9%OthersIn view of the current leading position of Samsung in FPDTV market and the growing share of TCL, and also the losing market of Sony, there should have some relations between the current situations and their techn

37、ology catch up models.i. Failure of Sony in transition to digital eraIn the early 2000s, iPod created a revolution in the standard and format of musicplayer. The enormous success of iPod also implied us a message: The analog era ended and the digital era began. If we look into the popular product in

38、ventions of Sony, we can easily say Trinitron, Walkman, CD and MD. These products share the same characteristics, i.e. they are analog in nature. There are little or even no popular inventions by Sony in the digital era. Sony is said to fail to transit from analogue era to digital era.Sonys failure

39、is related to the course of its technology catch up. As mentioned, Sony started from learnt technology and gradually modified technology and created its own inventions and industrial standards. Through the course of the developmentfrom OEM to OBM, Sonys efforts are put in the Analog technology. Howe

40、ver, transition from analog to digital ear was so quick that beyond the estimation of Sony. While Sony was still pulling R&D expenses in Trinitron, FPDTV start to substitutethe CRTTV. 9Leading corporations usually have inertia to their past successful strategies or technologies. This inertia als

41、o applied to Sony that Sony is so successful in analog invention and Sony tends to stick their R&D in analog development. The inertia make Sony simply thought that the market would accept anything they invent.Sonys decision not to invest in LCD eventually cost Sony dearly. Demand for LCD explode

42、d in 2002 and finally forced Sony to set up a joint venture with Samsung, S-LCD, in 2003 in order to secure a reliable supply of flat display. In 2005, Sony agreed to expand this joint venture and invested an additional $2billion to build large LCD flat panels.ii. Technology catch up of Samsung in d

43、igital eraTechnology catch up history of Samsung tells us that Samsung start its OBDstage in the mid 1990s which is the beginning of transition period from analog to digital era. More, their major successful product, DRAMs, in ODM stage is an important component in many digital products. Because of

44、this, Samsung gain the best timing and technology know-how to enter digital era.Different from Sony, Samsung is relatively young and therefore has no inertia to past successful technology. Samsung can concentrate on developing the LCD technology. More, it gives Samsung a faster decision cycle when d

45、eciding in investing the value and supply chain because Samsung do not have any analog inventions in the past. That means Samsung management can trigger the investment without thinkingwhether the investment has any effect on their invented technology.iii. TCL nourished in the emerging marketIn emerg

46、ing market, China, the main expanding purchasing power come frommid to low end market. That means the product price should be affordable by majority in order to enjoy the expanding purchase potential. The catch-up model of TCL is best fit into the needs of emerging market. As mentioned, TCL gained t

47、echnology by outsourcing strategy. This gave TCL an advantage to acquire the technology when there are needs in market and spend comparatively low in R&D. As a result, TCL could grow at a fast peace at a low cost, which enables TCL to produce FPD TV at an affordable price. In 2008, China central

48、 government launched the electrical appliance subsidy campaign that people from rural area can purchase home appliance with the government subsidization. This campaign triggered the sales FPD TV in mid and low market and eventually, the sales of TCL FPD TV bloomed in a short period of time.It is not

49、 saying that TCL FPD TV is better than Sony s and Samsungs in China market. China consumers still regards Sony and Samsung as better brand positionthan domestics brands. However, the case reveals the fact that the catch up model of TCL suited TCL products into the needs of emerging markets. Also, th

50、e financial crisis in 2008 lowered the purchasing power in traditional market such as US and West Europe. More consumers started to look for best-valued product. This also helped TCL to gain the 6.6% worldwide TV market share in 2009.4. Future of Sony, Samsung and TCL10In 2007, ASEAN announced it ai

51、med to complete all its free trade agreementswith China, Japan, South Korea, and India by 2013. This implies that the Asiaregional integration will speed up in 21st century. While Asia becomes more integrated as a single entity, the conditional differences between the companies from different countr

52、ies become diminished. For example, all the companies in Japan, Korea and China can go to set up production and R&D facilities in ASEAN with the same tax, same pool of labor source and suppliers.On the other hand, the further development of information technology continues to change the traditio

53、nal catch up model as went thought by Song and Samsung. Traditionally, production process begins with R&D, procurement of parts and components, manufacturing and assembling and logistics. IT-enabled business has given rise to many firms that specialize in only one activity in the whole process.

54、Another outcome is that more firms are able to join the competition by outsourcing strategies, TCL is an example that joined the FPDTV market by extensive technology acquiring through outsourcing strategy.In view of these two facts, Asia integration and IT-enabled business model, what are the future

55、 of these 3 electronics players, Sony, Samsung and TCL?i. Sony Regain the leadAs the Asia integration moves forwards, it is now the high time to invest in building the value and supply chain in Asia. More, the trend for further IT development is inevitable, besides in-house R&D, Sony could speed

56、 up its R&D process to cope with the fast change market by outsourcing strategies.What Sonys value brings to customer is Sonys continuous innovation. Sonyalready lagged behind in the digital era. Sony could set up various11entrepreneurialunits that focus on inventing new technology different for

57、m the main-stream of Song existing technologies. For example, Sony could set an entrepreneurial unit to develop the new standard of future display so as to regain the leading position in that area.ii. SamsungExtend the scope of inventionSame as Sony, Samsung should speed up the investment to establish value and supply chain in Asia. Although Samsung is very successful in th