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With Korean electronics makers taking a breather, their Japanese rivals are rolling up their sleeves to transform themselves into specialists. Having lost their lead to Korea in the semiconductor, liquid crystal display and digital TV markets one by one over the past 10 years, Japanese electronics companies are doing everything they can to regain the lead in next-generation products.
Sony, Japan's leading electronics maker, sold some of its semiconductor facilities and has been focusing its investment on active matrix organic light emitting diode (AMOLED) displays. As a result of that effort, it has developed the industry's first 11-inch AMOLED TV, and plans to produce 1,000 units per month starting from this month. The company is looking to restore its domination in the next-generation display market after losing it in the LCD market.
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The world¡¯s first organic light-emitting diodes TV, which is 3 mm thick, 25 cm wide and 14 cm high, introduced by Japanese home appliance maker Sony in October /Bloomberg
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Hitachi, which sold its disk drive business in September and stopped producing PCs in October, plans to devote itself to manufacturing industrial electronic equipment. For the past two years it has been working to dispose of non-core business divisions.
Matsushita and Toshiba are putting all their efforts into plasma display panels (PDP) and NAND Flash, respectively, areas where they believe they hold a competitive edge. Having judged that it needs to increase production to maintain its top position in the PDP market, Matsushita has decided to invest an additional US$2.3 billion in the business. Toshiba recently announced plans to invest W8 trillion (US$1=W925) to consolidate its NAND Flash business for mobile phones and digital cameras.
Experts say these efforts are aimed at restoring the leadership of Japanese firms in the global electronics market. Having suffered enormous losses since 2000 due to the economic slowdown in the island nation and the remarkable performance of Korean companies in the global market, they began seeking out specialized business areas a few years ago. In addition, changes in market circumstances -- narrowing technological gaps between early starters and late-comers and decreasing profitability in most electronics areas such as handsets and TVs -- have prompted them to accelerate their efforts to explore new markets.
By contrast, Korean companies have been criticized for doing too little to escape stagnation and take a leap forward. Experts say that some domestic electronics makers like Samsung Electronics are performing well in most business areas, but they need to prepare to compete with Japanese rivals who are turning all their know-how and capabilities toward specialized areas.
"It's no exaggeration to say that Korea and Japan equally dominated the global electronics market for the last decade," said Min Hoo-sik, an executive at Tempis Capital Management. "Now that Japanese companies are working to compete for the next-generation market, Korean companies also have to stay alert."
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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