Nowaday names don't mean much

[Carmine]

A couple points:

It appears to me that Zenith was probably one of the last holdouts still building a good, durable set, in the US at least into the late 70s. But by that time, TVs had begun the slide into commodity and consumer's weren't willing to pay the premium.

There of course was the famous (infamous) TV dumping case against the Japanese that was dragged out so long in court (in exchange for Japanese support of US policy) that every US-made TV company except Zenith and RCA was gone by the time it was ruled the Japanese were dumping.

That does not mean that ALL Japanese companies were dumping... There is a small article in a 1977 issue of Consumer Reports called "Why nobody's mad at Sony" Pretty much says that Sony was selling sets on quality, not price, so they weren't part of the dumping case. Naturally, CR takes the opinion that dumping is a "good" thing, because it means lower prices for consumers. (scumbags)

So they outsourced. First to Mexico, then to Asian countries. Quality went in the dumper, and the reputation began to slide. The tried to diversify into computers, but that went nowhere. Enter Gold Star to buy a good chunk of the company.

They pinned their hopes on a compatible HDTV system, as was required by the US government at that time. In the early 90s, under intense lobbying from foreign companies, the FCC's compatible requirement was dropped. Practically overnight, Zenith stock became worthless because nobody needed the patents on a compatible HDTV system.

Gold Star steps in and buys the remains. Their name in the US is junk, so they re-badge it under the Zenith brand. This buys them some time in the US market, and they re-enter as "LG". The LG products are better than the Gold Star, and the Zenith name is phased out.

Right? Wrong?

I also believe that Zenith was an early pioneer of flat-tubes, at least having them as early as '88, and those WERE good tubes, not the junk that came after '93. They did continue with a "rounder" 23" tube in the entry model sets. I remember seeing a lot of those in bars.

[RVonse]

Originally Posted by Carmine

A couple points:


There of course was the famous (infamous) TV dumping case against the Japanese that was dragged out so long in court (in exchange for Japanese support of US policy) that every US-made TV company except Zenith and RCA was gone by the time it was ruled the Japanese were dumping.

For whatever reason since WWII, the Japanese seem to be far more sucessful at business than the American counterparts. First they successfully took over television electronics and now they have taken over the huge automobile industry that used to be the mainstay of America. All accomplished by a small nation with little or no natural resources to themselves.

A lot has happened since WWII and it hasn't been so good for the U.S I'm afraid. The U.S. should have made Japan the 51th state while we still had the chance.

[peverett]

The Japanese success in electronics has been fleeting. The consumer business is moving to other countries, such as China, etc. The Japanese stuff never really caught on in the personal computer world either, .

In addition, in the semiconductor manufacturing world, the Japanese were always also-rans. The large fabs have always been in the US, Europe, and now Taiwan. The Japanese fabs have actually only supplied the internal Japanese markets, never catching the US companies in market share. .

Saying the US companies have not been successful in electronics since world war II is just not correct. Just look at Intel, Hewlett Packard, Dell(until recently), TI, and Apple. There are many others. US companies just have not been successful in consumer entertainment electronics. They have been quite successfull in some consumer electronics. An example is the cell phone-Motorola. In fact, there is not a Japanese name in the top three cellphone suppliers(Nokia, Motorola, and Samsung). In addtion, US companies continue to provide components to Japanese consumer electronics companies to this day. Components made in the US.

As far as cars, it is my belief that the US manufacturers are still reaping what they (both management and labor) sowed in the 1970s. I am old enough to to remember horror stories from all of the big 3(crankshaft on gasoline engine breaking in two at 20,000 miles-GM-only warrantied half the cost, pulley falling off on an almost new Chrysler product, transmission lines crushed by poor assembly-causing out of warranty transmission re-build at 40,000 miles-my 1978 Ford Mustang-I can list many others). People bought far better quality Japanese cars, had good experience, and never looked back. It does not matter at this point if the big 3 automobilie quality is close to or as good as the Japanese-people my age and their children(as recommended by the parents) buy Japanese, they have no reason to go back.

By the way-I have four Fords, including a 2006 model, so I am not biased toward Japanese cars.

[andy]

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[colorfixer]

I can remember the first time I saw a Zenith FTM CRT monitor at the UBC in 1988. The display was so flat it had the appearance of bowing inward!

I think I recall an article that indicated Zenith had issues with yields in making the FTM tube in regular television sizes like 20 and 26". I imagine that such a tube would weigh something akin to a comparable Wega or more.

I came across a new in box FTM monitor a while back. Every pot in the thing needed going over with Cailube, and it was filled with those pink painted hex screws... The picture is breathtaking, but like it was said, fixed frequency monitors were getting dated in '88. My first 20" VGA monitor was a NEC multisync XL. It still works, and at 1024x768. I find it interesting that the FTM tube still used a round dot trio mask/phosphor rather than stripes.

[andy]

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[peverett]

IBM may have sold their PC business, but they are one of the few companies developing high performance semiconductor processes at .045 u and below. Intel and TSMC (of Taiwan) being the others that I am aware of. This is a very expensive effort, so they are far from a name only. TI just recently gave their effort up.