Panasonic To Cut 10,000 Jobs (nikkei.com) 32
An anonymous reader shares a report: Panasonic will undertake a major restructuring across a range of its business, including consumer electronics, cutting 10,000 jobs globally, as the Japanese company plans to streamline, spinning out struggling divisions in hopes of reversing its dwindling market share and fending off fierce Chinese competition. Panasonic did not say which businesses it intended to shrink. The company expects to book structural reform costs of roughly $900 million this business year. Panasonic ended the fiscal year
wait (Score:2)
they.. they ended the fiscal year? but i wasn't done
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they.. they ended the fiscal year? but i wasn't done
Fiscal years don't always align with calendar years. For example, Apple's fiscal year starts on the last Sunday of September.
Good company (Score:5, Interesting)
I had a Panasonic tv (tubed) and vcr for decades and neither ever gave me a problem. Rock solid.
Not sure what their current stuff is like, but if they can keep making 'em like they used to, they should do fine.
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I have a Panasonic microwave (commercial one). It's pricy for the 2020s, but less in real terms than a domestic microwave cost in the 90s. It's incredibly easy to clean, large and blasts out 1,800 watts and can do so for hours at a time. It's very good.
Re:Good company (Score:4, Interesting)
I want to say that some Panasonic microwaves are the few that you can buy today not made by Midea and/or Gree or whichever 2 companies make nearly all the microwaves. They are considered top of the line if you can find them.
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I remember buying the simplest microwave ever in 1982 or 1983. It was tiny, didn't have a rotating dish or anything inside, literally one dial on the front that you used to set how long it was powered. That's it. Cost $399.99 from Montgomery Wards. Online inflation calculator says that's around $1300 in today's dollars.
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That's much like the modern commercial ones. There's basically two sorts depending if they are for cafe or kitchen use. The latter usually have two dials: power and time. They're powerful enough that you really do want power control for defrosting etc. the only other control is time.
The former generally have a large number of program memories that let you cook in stages, the idea being that each served item is numbered and once calibrated, your staff shove the item in, hit the corresponding number and it co
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I've got a domestic Panasonic microwave oven. Bought it because we had a cheaper one with enamel paint that peeled off the plain mild steel that then went rusty where the door closes, not good at all I thought.
Therefore we bought the Panasonic because it's all decent looking stainless steel. It's got to be over 20 years old and still all works perfectly with no corrosion of course. The only problem has been that the adhesive strip that attaches the door bezel gave up with age. It was a bugger of a job getti
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Not sure what their current stuff is like
Well that right there would suggest they have a problem. Someone with respect for their brand hasn't considered their products since last century...
I have a panasonic plasma I've thought pretty well of...
But broadly Panasonic seems to be undifferentiated products in a lot of segments, "good enough" but not doing anything that inspires significant brand loyalty.
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But broadly Panasonic seems to be undifferentiated products in a lot of segments
I agree, I was thinking and there's no form of appliance or consumer electronics where I would go looking for something new, and actually seek out that brand.
Maybe just being a solid maker of products and living in the middle of the market is a workable approach, but maybe not after all these moves. Maybe a company needs at least a few tentpole product areas where they are clearly leaders, to help bring consumers to other thing
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Yeah probably more than the Chinese Panasonic got pushed out by the Korean 1-2 of Samsung and LG who in the 80-90's were considered lower tier brands (when LG was Goldstar) and then became very dominant as the 2000's rolled around.
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Samsung...
Good products... yeah, sure buddy. What century are you living in?
They make shit smartphones. Galaxy2 was the last semi-decent phone they made that actually lasted more than a year or two without random parts just deciding to go get some smokes at the gas station just like your dad did. Three Galaxy3's shit after about a year and a half, all for different reason like cellular modem took a shit, audio circuit took a shit, camera took a shit, ETC. And then they made a firebomb.
Shit kitchen appliance
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OK, it was supposed to be about Panasonic but, I have three Samsung products, a TV that I'm watching a movie on, I like that it has a couple of HDMI sockets, SCART, and both RCA and optical audio outputs, and two monitors, the 20 years old one is a lovely 1600x1200 screen, the 17 years old one is the wide screen format.
The TV has never had any attention and is working perfectly, no sound bar, sounds great connected to the optical input of my Marantz amp.
Both monitors failed recently, but they each only need
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Both monitors failed recently, but they each only needed around £10 worth of new (Panasonic this time!) electrolytic caps to get the power supplies working again and they're both perfect once more.
Give them a few months for the additional stress caused by the bad caps to cause the T-CON board to fail. :-)
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OK, it was supposed to be about Panasonic but, I have three Samsung products, a TV that I'm watching a movie on, I like that it has a couple of HDMI sockets, SCART, and both RCA and optical audio outputs, and two monitors, the 20 years old one is a lovely 1600x1200 screen, the 17 years old one is the wide screen format.
Yeah like you said, 20 and 17 years old, but enshittification takes its toll. Let's see if equivalent Samsung products bought today are still performing as well in 17 and 20 years time.
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They're a pretty big player in the broadcast and pro AV markets, they have very nice PTZ and TV cameras, broadcast monitors, really nice projectors but that's all out of the average consumer eye.
My parents also had a Panasonic plasma that ran for close to 20 years, it just stopped working this past year, not even any real burn-in either. Today though I don't even really have the option to buy a consumer Panasonic TV. I like my Panasonic nose trimmer though.
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They also have something like an 80% market share for their in-flight entertainment stuff through Panasonic Avionics [panasonic.aero] which I'd bet almost nobody knows about because their branding isn't up front and center on a lot of the older models.
Re:Good company (Score:4, Interesting)
Not sure what their current stuff is like, but if they can keep making 'em like they used to, they should do fine.
In my experience their current stuff is still good. Unfortunately, this is not the era where making good products that last and therefore maximize the value to the consumer is a reliable business model, especially in consumer electronics. This era has been a race to the bottom, who can make the cheapest product (that still LOOKS nice) and that gets people used to "upgrading" it regularly- long term value for the consumer be damned (since why wouldn't you want your customer to just buy another one from you?). There are those of us who still research brands and buy reliable products, but there are less of us now than there were, and we buy things less often since we aren't convinced to engage with every upgrade cycle... we're not the best customers. Just my anecdotal ~2 cents though.
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Re: Good company (Score:1)
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Their stuff is good, but you presented a real problem. You didn't give them money for decades because their gear was so solid. They effectively lost you as a customer since you had what you needed and it didn't break.
We're on our second Samsung TV. So objectively Samsung has less of a problem having me as a customer as Panasonic does having you as one.
I also have a Technics SL-1200 turntable from Panasonic. It's from the 90s. It's amazing, but Panasonic sold me one thing and then didn't get any further mone
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I bought a Panasonic plasma TV in 2013 shortly before they ended production. The picture is still gorgeous, and the TV has given me zero problems aside from the fact that the rather dated version of HDMI ARC it supports doesn't play well with even my mid-tier soundbar from last year. For what was on offer for a more premium but not outlandishly expensive TV when I bought it, I couldn't be more pleased.
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I had a Panasonic tv (tubed) and vcr for decades and neither ever gave me a problem. Rock solid.
Not sure what their current stuff is like, but if they can keep making 'em like they used to, they should do fine.
Of course you know that VCRs aren't being made any more, but "kids" (think Millennials and after) don't buy electronics any more. Many actually choose to watch videos on tiny laptop or, even worse, tiny phone screens. This is surely why Panasonic is having problems.
Re: Good company (Score:2)
I still have Panasonic plasma. It's almost 20 years old. Paid $2000 for it back in the day.
Still better black as well as viewing angles compared to what's in the store today.
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A color TV from a major manufacturer like Panasonic, built to 1985 standards, would cost about $1200 today, for a 20-inch.
Panasonic's been cooked for a while (Score:2)
Panasonic's been cooked for a while new. Their HT projectors were fantastic, their HT receivers were built around TI's PurePath digital amplifier, which has insanely good sound (I have two..)
And then one day mid last decade they stopped all of that. By 2018 they were gone from that market.
Very bad sign back then.
Their LCD panels for the home PJs were made by Epson, so I just went to Epson when my Pana died at 6500 hrs. I really need to get it fixed, the AE-8000 is shockingly good if you have a proper ro
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Seconded on that projector. So very pretty. I think HT projectors would be way more popular overall if enough people had actually seen what that one could do.
Some cuts have already happened. (Score:1)
Shame, Panasonic has always been excellent (Score:2)
I always had Panasonic AV equipment and never had a single problem with any of it. When people would mention Japanese quality some people would think Sony, but I always thought Panasonic.
Currently, they make the best microwave ovens - particularly their Inverter microwaves which control the power level of the microwave instead of doing like every other unit and simply toggling a full-blast microwave on and off and adjusting the duty cycle. Quality over hackery.
Hopefully they can find new leadership to bring