Philips TV Tuner History pt5
Competition and Growth
Introduction
We have reached the end of the 1980s, probably the turning point in the Philips Tuner history. On the one hand the business has been doing well: constant consolidation of (mainly European and US) competitors has substantially increased the market share and volumes, making it one of the global top3 tuner makers. However, in parallel the emergence of Japanese competition has made the business environment increasingly harsh, with a serious pressure on profitability and thus cost. Although Philips with its UV800 tuner family has probably made the best tuner ever in terms of robustness and performance, this model is clearly too big and expensive and in the coming two decades we will see a continuous drive for cost reduction and the associated size reduction. One of the most remarkable steps in this context is the move to the World Standard Pinning (WSP), with Philips agreeing with its main competitors Alps and Matsushita