Monday, April 2, 2012

Hon Hai and Sharp: Crystal Vision


Within Taiwan there are many companies that most Americans have never heard of that are used by larger name brand companies, such as Apple, to make electronic products. Hon Hai Precision Industry, also known as Foxconn is one of these companies. Foxconn, who works for Apple making most iPads and iPhones, recently purchased 10% of Sharp, a struggling Japanese company that makes LCD display panels. This deal only further spurs the growth of Foxconn, which has experienced a 50% increase in sales growth from January to February this year compared to last year. Sharp, on the other hand, is predicted to experience a huge loss this year from January to March. It is predicted that Sharp’s revenue will fall by one-sixth, which is a loss of approximately 290 billion yen. This is significant because it demonstrates the decline of the Japanese consumer-electronics industry and the rise of China’s. I think this article is interesting because it shows how markets and countries evolve. For years Japan was such a huge electronics producer, but now they are being replaced.

31 March 2012


Josh Thompson

1 comment:

  1. I thnk a amajor reason they are being replaced is because of the low wage costs in Taiwan and China. I know that in Taiwan the usual minmum wage for them was 100 kuai. Which is equivalent to a little over 3 dollars an hour. This makes it tough for Japan to keep up with the lower costs.

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