Originally Posted by
Kodaz:
“Well, as you say, a lot of Chinese "behind the scenes" and OEM manufacturers *are* huge companies with massive infrastructures. Foxconn in particular are humungus, and (I suspect) dwarf even those big companies you describe from the 80s- they supposedly have 1.23 million employees. Yet of the people in the West who *do* know them at all, the majority probably only heard of them via bad publicity which only got into the news because they were an OEM for the beloved (and well-known) Apple.
And yes, there are quite a lot of small operations making products of dubious quality in China today, but surely there must have been quite a lot of that in the 80s as well? I'm guessing that it's just that we tend to forget the tat because it wasn't valued.
So maybe things aren't so different, but are pretty much the same... just more so.
”
Absolutely.
Remember it's not that long ago that Korean made products and Taiwanese made products were seen in the same light.
Samsung and LG in the 80s especially had much the same image as the likes of Vestel do now. Hyundia/Kia were seen in the same light in the car market too.
Before that, back in the 50s/60s and into the 70s the Japanese products often had a similar image.
China is pretty much at the same stage. Companies such as Huawei and ZTE produced budget products for the mobile market that were badge engineered, not great quality but sold by the bucket load around the World. Much the same as LG and Samsung did with consumer electronics in the 80s and early 90s. But, just like their Korean counterparts, they grew quickly, quality improved and now Huawei and ZTE produce some very good quality products, as do the Koreans now.
Unfortunately, as quality increases so do prices. Hyundai and Kia cars may now be pretty much on a par with the major European and Japanese companies, but their cars now costs pretty much the same. The same is true with LG and Samsung, their much better quality products now costs the same, and often more, than their rivals.
The same thing will happen with Chinese products. As quality improves, their economy continues to grow, wages go up and worker's get better rights then prices go up and eventually another country will enter the budget and lower quality end. We already know some of the Chinese companies can make quality products
Vestel of Turkey though doesn't seem to have made the same move upmarket, they seem to stick to the lower end of the market, or maybe it's just taking longer.