I've worked in the electronics business for close to 20 years now and witnessed the sell-off off factories. Nobody builds their own equipment anymore, it's just not cost effective. Lucent, Nortel, Dell, HP...name the company, they all get their stuff built by companies like Solectron, Celestica, Jabil, Flextronics, Sanmina, and others. These contract manufacturers are in the business of building systems; the OEM's listed above design and market their products. The semiconductor manufacturers such as Intel, AMD, National Semiconductor, etc all use third party factories (TSMC, Tower, UMC) to manufacture the silicon. They pretty much have to, it costs over $1 billion to set up a semiconductor fab these days. It's all about the design, not the assembly.
Who Makes It Anyhow?
We all know that some companies have other companies make their products, but there seems to be no way for the consumer to figure out who is making what for whom. Case in point, I recently acquired a Harman Kardon CDR/RW reader/writer and then read a review which stated that "Despite being graced with a harman-styled fascia, gold livery and back-lit keys, this dual-transport CDR/RW player is very close indeed in both design, execution and performance to another LG-sourced recorder, the Grundig RCD-45. " (referring to a Lucky-Goldstar production in the far east). Looking at the new Pioneer CDR/CDRW's the faceplate looks just like the HHB CDR 830. Hmmm..... Is this happening with speakers and amplifiers?
.......I guess my point is how does everyone feel about this? Should there be a resource to see who is outsourcng their products from whom? Is there such a resource? I suppose manufactures want to keep this info secret, but its something I would have liked to know. While I have referenced CDR/RW players/ writers, this has to be happenning with CD players, amps and preamps. I know everyone will say that even though boxes come out of the same factory some were made to special "specs", so we have to be careful, but still, is this info worthwile and will it be likely to be available in the future? Good or bad idea?
.......I guess my point is how does everyone feel about this? Should there be a resource to see who is outsourcng their products from whom? Is there such a resource? I suppose manufactures want to keep this info secret, but its something I would have liked to know. While I have referenced CDR/RW players/ writers, this has to be happenning with CD players, amps and preamps. I know everyone will say that even though boxes come out of the same factory some were made to special "specs", so we have to be careful, but still, is this info worthwile and will it be likely to be available in the future? Good or bad idea?