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Japanese Chip Makers to Unite
Doctor Memory writes "The Register reports that several Japanese semiconductor manufacturers (Toshiba, Hitachi and Renesas, and possibly NEC and Matsushita) are in talks to create a "semiconductor superpower" to counter rivals in Taiwan, the US and China. The firms are in talks to create a shared foundry, which might set the stage for the creation of a 45-nanometer process well in advance of the competition."
I have mixed feelings about this.. would be greate for tech but what will happen to the consumer once they kill the competition?
'...if only "Jumping to a Conclusion" was an event in the Olympics.'
So much the eaiser to fix prices if you 'collaborate' your R&D and production.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Seems that the cost of living is much greater in Japan than in the USA. They can beat the USA by their manufacturing effeciency. I don't see how Japan can hope to compete with Taiwan and China though, unless they out research Taiwan. If they come up with even sharper, leading-edge manufacturing, maybe.
This is true in the electronics industry, but not for semiconductors. You don't need very many employees to run a semiconductor fab, and they can't be taken in from the street. The big expense is equipment and the facilities, and these prices do not vary that much (but they are huge - several billion dollars for a cutting-edge facility). My impression is that one of the biggest factors in where fabs are located is where companies can get the biggest tax cuts and/or government subsidies. BTW, there are cutting-edge fabs in the US, in Europe, in China, in Taiwan, in Singapore and in Japan.
Believe me, I do a lot of R&D Testing of products whose manufacture recently was 'shifted' from the US to China. The Chinese who I have encountered (Shenzen region) have zero concept of proactive quality engineering. They will do exactly what they think you told them to do without thinking. Any time there is a problem, they become defensive and opaque, and it becomes very difficult to do anything about the issue.
My feeling is that this comes from years of socalism and group-think within a very regimented culture.
resigned
One of the reasons Japan isn't doing so hot is that they can't compete as well as they used to now that their labor wages are so high. I find it amazing that any business leader would think by eliminating all competition in their own country they are going to be more competitive on the world market. Since when has IBM or Sun decided that buying out Intel, AMD, and all the other chip makers is going to make them sell more chips in Asia? No, we in America do precisely the opposite. We stab our own domestic companies in the back unless they can do it for cheaper and better. We would happily see IBM, Sun, Intel, and AMD bite the dust if they bit the dust due to a leaner, more aggressive, and better producer.
What Japan should look at instead of conglomeration is lowering the cost of entrepeneuring, and encouraging young people to start companies. Rather than forcing on the youth the ideal of getting into a good college so you can get hired by a good company, they should push on the youth the concept of rebelling against conventional wisdom and inventing new businesses and technology to slay the dragons. This would keep the existing companies competetive because they would have to compete just to keep their domestic revenue. Instead, they are forming a cartel of sorts that will discourage innovation and competition, and the Japanese people are looking the other way. They don't have a culture of entrepeneurship, and they haven't worked to create one. Now they will get screwed by higher prices and crappier products thanks to an unrestricted monopoly. (Phase 2 of the plan, if it isn't obvious, is tariffs or restrictions on imported electronics.)
Maybe the US system of education is doing well for our country precisely because it is so incredibly broken compared to Japan's. People have a much better chance of succeeding economically by entrepeneurship than education and employment in our country. That's why your local independent plumber and painter are making more money than you are and they haven't even seen the inside of a college campus. And the net result is that people in our country know that the only way to be truly fabulously wealthy is to quit your job and go form your own company.
The radical sect of Islam would either see you dead or "reverted" to Islam.