Strategy in TECH...
More evidence is emerging of the possibility of an economically significant impact from a stressed supply chain that has hit the global supply of integrated circuits (chips) hard. First felt in the automotive segment, now Samsung is warning that the global chip shortage is impacting smartphones and personal computers.
Since Strata-gee began tracking the story of our stressed-to-the-brink supply chain last year, the situation has only become more dire. Not only has the pandemic caused a once-in-a-hundred-years impact on the supply chain, but adding to that whipsaw from the collapse of demand to then off-the-charts demand, we can now add fires, earthquakes, and snowstorms to the mix.
It all adds up to a concerning level of stress to our supply chain that will impact product availability in multiple product segments, including residential and commercial technology.
On Monday, Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong – also known as JY Lee, J. Y. Lee or Jay Y. Lee – was sentenced to 2½ years in prison for his role in a bribery and embezzlement scheme to influence the President of South Korea in order to increase his share and power in the company. This development is big news in Korea. Samsung Electronics, part of the Samsung family of companies that is the largest conglomerate in South Korea, by itself represents almost 20% of the entire value of all exports from Korea.
CES 2020, the big show, is about over (ending the day this was posted) and as usual there are a slew of announcements. It can be a little overwhelming with so much happening in Las Vegas, but there are some stories that flat out are just more important or interesting than others.
A funny thing happened this year at the 2019 CEDIA Expo…everyone I ran into kept asking me the same thing – what is the big story from the show? What’s funny is that I asked them the same question. Even when I ran into other members of the media…we often queried each other. Most kind of shrugged and would mention an item or two, but nothing that represented a major theme of the event.
However, there is an answer I came up with, but I’m not sure its the best answer…
You will find more infographics at Statista
Bowers & Wilkins (B&W) announced today it has restructured its company in order to further its research and development initiatives. In a brief announcement, only four paragraphs long, new CEO Gregory Lee (former CEO of Samsung North America) said a new, larger research facility will open in 2019.
New research shows that while a majority of internet users own some type of smart device, almost no one owns a smart appliance – even though many manufacturers like Samsung have been pushing the category for a couple of years now. If consumers believe in “smart” technology, what’s going on with smart appliances??
Korean media is touting a major breakthrough in battery technology from the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology (SAIT) called graphene ball. Said to dramatically improve both charging capacity and charging speed, the breakthrough could have a real impact on consumers who have come to rely on their battery driven mobile devices. And there are implications as well for electric automobiles and other applications.
Korean media is reporting that a nasty fight has erupted in South Korea, where Samsung has uploaded a video that compares its QLED screen versus an LG OLED screen. The slickly produced comparison video allegedly shows “image retention” (commonly called burn-in over here) on the OLED screen after gamers play on both screens for twelve hours straight. LG, understandably, cries foul…
