Consumer Electronics and Devices

Prices per unit of performance fall continuously in this industry, so profit goes to whoever is early in a category, holds a brand premium, or controls a component or an operating system that rivals cannot match quickly. Sony led with the Trinitron and the Walkman and then lost digital music to Apple and flat panels to Samsung; Nokia sold about 40 percent of the world's handsets in 2007 and sold its phone business to Microsoft in 2014. Product cycles are short, unsold inventory loses value fast, and assembly sits with contract manufacturers whose labour conditions are part of the story. The literature covers Sony's founding and its contest with Samsung, the Nokia and BlackBerry collapses, Apple's engineering and design practice from the inside, and the factories where the devices are built.

9 books