[Wodgy]

I thought this was interesting, since the Philips DV-963SA was so popular here last year. There's an article in this morning's Wall Street Journal suggesting that the North American consumer electronics division of Philips may be completely shut down at the end of 2004, unless they can show a yearly profit. Apparently they've lost money in the US for the last 15 (!) years straight. Quote:

"For years, every time the Dutch bosses of Philips Electronics NV came here for a visit, Terry Fassburg would take them to Union Square, an area blanketed with electronics stores.
Then Mr. Fassburg, the communications chief for the company's U.S. operations, would bet them $100 that they couldn't find three products made by Philips, Europe's biggest consumer-electronics company. He never lost."

Seems too bad. The DV-963SA was a cool product.

 

[HighwayStar]

Unbelievable. Their Pronto line of universal/PC programmable touchscreen remotes are an incredible product.

 

[FCJ]

I read the same article this morning, and it doesn't surprise me, given that they've been poorly run in the States for years. Both their marketing and distribution were poor, they let others capitalize on their inventions, and they focused too much on the low end with Maganavox. It would be hard to believe that a company such as Philips would not be in the world's largest consumer market, but stranger things have happened.

 

[elnero]

I believe Philips doesn't have any consumer electronics in Canada any longer. I haven't seen anything in quite awhile but then I'm fairly isolated here in PEI but if you go to the Canadian website there is no mention of consumer products whatsoever either.

 

[mbriant]

Quote:

I'd be a little leary of Philips products. Perhaps the company's different now, but ever since they invented the compact cassette, they became more of an R&D company for consumer electronics....prefering to develop technology and licensing it to others. In Canada at least (maybe different in the US) they would bring out a product line or product category, then drop it after a couple of years. During the 80's & 90's (again, in Canada) they got in and out of home audio at least 3 or 4 times. Could make service in the future difficult.

I posted the above last August when someone was asking about plasma televisions. It's a real burden being right all the time.

 

[jlo mein]

Quote:

Originally posted by elnero I believe Philips doesn't have any consumer electronics in Canada any longer. I haven't seen anything in quite awhile but then I'm fairly isolated here in PEI but if you go to the Canadian website there is no mention of consumer products whatsoever either.

definitely with headphones you are right...haven't seen philips headphones here ever...

i think they did sell some cd players though...

 

[D-EJ915]

Philips actually makes some nice *cheap* pcdps, I liked mine...until it just randomly died while I was in germany!!...gah, I didn't want to buy a new one over there either because they have the low output...dang Philips, make stuff that doesn't break...like my 915, it's older, was used more, and still works like a charm.

 

[Trawlerman]

Hmmm.... So Philips are to close down it's consumer electronics division?

I can't see this myself. They have a massive share in the market when it comes to consumer products. Forget SACD / DVD players for the moment and just think about how many TVs they sell each year. I think pulling out of the consumer market would be the worst thing that they could do.

Perhaps Philips do no not have such a strong branding in the US but in Europe they are legendary. I would hazard a guess and say that almost everybody owns something of Philips manufacture in some for or fashion. They are like the European based Sony. Think about it.

With regards to component manufacture they are certainly the biggest in Europe by a long way.


So, Philips are to pull out of the consumer electronics division. I'll believe it when I see it. They may curtail their hifi down somewhat given the downturn in interest in 2-channel stuff and that's about as much as I can see them doing.

 

[Music Fanatic]

Well, I think it is a bit odd -- after all, Philips just offers significantly more products outside the US than inside, so is it really surprising that they have poor market share here?