Rise of the Small Brands

gbobeck writes "Yahoo News is running a story looking at smaller brands in the marketplace. The article discusses the increase of numbers of people who are choosing to purchase lesser known brands of electronics. The bottom line is the major electronics makers still dominate the market, but collective presence of lesser-known brands has helped keep prices down while boosting product choices."

Comments

Lite-On

[webmistressrachel]

Lite-On deserve a mention here; at a time when Plextor was the the only writer in town, Lite-On released cheap 32x and 40x CD-Writers which could rip damaged CDs that nothing else would rip or even play. Before long, as prices fell, I was building a Lite-On into every customer's system.

How many are there really?

[Bombula]

I would be more interested to see how many manufacturers there are. A lot of the smaller brands use the same suppliers and assemble to pretty much the same specs as the bigger brands - that goes for everything from consumer electronics to things like PC hardware. It's kind of like a shirt from The Gap vs a shirt from Structure - they're all made in either the same Filipino sweatshop, or the sweatshop next door, and either way they use the same supplies. And that, of course, is where all the 'fakes' come from.

Of course, there is always the occassional flair of inspired creativity. I was in Asia recently and brought back a $5 'PolyStation' for a friend as a gag gift. It was a PS1 shell with about 500 NES roms built in - hilarious.

Re:Where can you get honest reviews?

[webmistressrachel]

Yes, here!(on Slashdot). Read my notes about the rise of Lite On. Some startups actually produce some good gear. The link you've provided tars everybody with the same brush. Just because there's one scam, doesnt mean everybody's doing it.

Brand is only skin deep

[Opportunist]

Or tin deep in this case, rather. I had my revelation when I opened up an HP computer, only to find that they used exactly (and I MEAN exactly) the same components that were used in a low budget "brand" (you know, one of the kind that gets sued for being labeled "no name"). Exactly the same (crappy) components.

It's the same with dishwashers, washing machines, microwaves. Brands only slap a nice cover around it, the insides are more often than not just bought, not made by the brand company.

What you get from a brand name is the service. And considering the service of some brands *coughsonycough*, I'm better off with a "generic" brand. Breaks down just as fast, has exactly the same nonexistant service, but I pay about 2/3 of what that brand name gadget would've costed.

Consumer products

[jpc]

Generally (there are exceptions) high end comnsumer products are just shiny packages on fairly junky stuff. Low end (or used) Professional stuff is generalyl much better, often cheaper, and usually much better built. Go to a good professional catering shop for pans that will outlast you and are better designed and cheaper than anything in consumer shops. Not available in a range of colours though. Same with audio equipment, cameras and so on. Things that people use every day are just better made.

Cheap disposable consumer products are great if you want something cheap. But there is no point in Bang and Olufson.

Re:Internet empowers consumers

[Blakey Rat]

I bought a Zenith TV (not sure if that counts as a small brand or not, but it's certainly no Sony) because at the time, they were the last American company that made TVs. Anything else would have come from Korea or Japan.

Oh, and that intelligent choice came about because of an article I read on the internet about the Japanese domination in electronics.