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© 2012 AFPHitachi to stop making televisions
TOKYO©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.
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© 2012 AFP
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Yubaru
Japanese manufacturers are going the way that the US one's did decades ago. The US stopped making TV's when they outsourced them to Japanese companies and now the same is happening here too.
some14some
i worry about the employment of Model Girls with so many Japanese elec makers abandoning their production !
Mirai Hayashi
With the internet, who needs TV?
888naff
"With the internet, who needs TV?" evidently the internet needs it!
and that is the major recent developments/achievements in the tv world this year.
"internet services" on the TV are the way forward and especially useful for internationally minded people although the service doesn't deliver yet.
smartacus
Sad news.
I don't agree that the Internet will make TVs obsolete. Why would you even want to watch programs and movies on a computer screen? I prefer my 50-inch TV screen any day.
Battlecam Slayerz
Hitachi going the way of GE.
CapnSinbad
Two members of my family both bought Sharp 80" TVs over Xmas when I was back in Canada, costing about 370,000 yen each. Here, the same TVs, if you can find them, cost double that. What's with that ? I bought a Hitachi55" here 7 years ago for 675,000 yen and it has been in for repairs a half-dozen times including having to replace the tuner a month after I bought it and the the flat-screen itself within a year. The Hitachi people have been to my house a half-dozen times for other repairs. Now what do I do ? My other 50" is a Pioneer ,who also stopped making TVs years back. Way to go guys !
j4p4nFTW
Japan should consider going to the WTO and bringing a case against those nations that are manipulating its currency.
MeanRingo
I hear yer pain Capn. Though I am happy to say I am one of the few who still own an old 37-inch fat boy that weighs a metric tonne. I got it from a friend when he bought a 40-inch flat screen back when that was the impressively big number. It just blows my mind walking the streets of T.O. just how many TVs I see on the curb waiting for pickup. You can't give the damn things away anymore. I feel like one of those people who don't have a cell phone. Friends look at me strangely. Thieves won't even bother to lug it away. Not sure I mind, not sure I mind.
Virtuoso
If the model is 7 years old you'd be out of luck anyway, because the law only requires makers of appliances to keep an inventory of repair parts for any given product for 7 years. My Hitachi washing machine lasted 25 years, and required one motor change during its lifetime. They still had a replacement motor after it was like 12 years old. I miss the old round rice cookers -- the new ones look like rugby balls and have too many bells and whistles.
Yubaru
It's got nothing to do with the yen rate really. Japanese local manufacturers over price their locally produced merchandise and use their overseas production lines for exported products. It makes no sense at all that someone can purchase the exact same product for, in some cases, almost 50% less then something produced locally.
nath
I have a 6 month old 21 inch Sharp Aquos. When I plug my MacBook into it to watch a larger movie screen, then check my mail, my Mac gets a purple screen and totally freezes. Really hard to get out of it. So although this TV is nice, not sure if it is good enough to use with a computer as a monitor. I need some help with this. Any opinions?
herefornow
And the hallowing out of Japan continues to gain momentum, Sony, Panasonic, and now Hitachi. And all folks like j4p4nFTW can do is blame supposed currency manipulators. Conveniently ignoring of course the obvious cause, which is that big Japanese companies become so resistent to change that they cannot respond to changes in the marketplace. As Yubaru points out, this is nothing more than a new phase in Japan's industrial life-cyle, and unless it encourages new companies to form, who can take up the slack for the declining old ones, it will fade further into irrelevancy. Yup, for sure the U.S., and companies like GE, suffered similar problems when they were forced by Japanese companies to get out of the TV business. But GE moved into new areas, and the void left in the U.S. economy was made up for by companies like Apple, Microsoft, etc. Will Japan be able to say the same in twenty years?
LH10
this is so sad! ToT NOOOOOO!
papasmurfinjapan
I'm sure that inspires confidence in consumers considering buying Hitachi.
If they are smart they should make some sort of deal with Samsung to sell their TVs here under the Hitachi brand.
JeffLee
Hitachi means "rising sun," making this an iconic development. I once heard Hitachi was originally founded with the aim of reducing Japan's dependence on foreign imports.
nath
With OLED TVs waiting to come out in a year or so by Samsung and others and Hollywood screaming to the FBI and congress to knock out downloading, it's only a matter of time when tose enemies just join hands and everyone will be watching internet movies and AKB48 (ugh) on the big 70" Sharp screen at home. A liitle bird told me that Sharp may come out with an 80" TV soon. Wow!
anglootaku
China is killing Made in Japan goods
Battlecam Slayerz
My GE comment was because GE use to be a major maker of consumer electronics and slowly phased it out to just making home appliances.