Hasta La Gadget!

It’s easy to laugh at futurist predictions. But when they’re proven accurate, it’s hard not to be impressed. Especially when it comes to technology that we now use every day.

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The Japanese consumer electronics industry continues to feel the squeeze in the economy, with mass layoffs of workers representing one of the more painful effects. In the latest development, Panasonic Corp. says it will reduce its workforce by 10,000 employees by the end of this fiscal year, which completes in March 2013. The company had already warned that it will post losses of $10 billion for the full year, because of write-offs in its mobile, solar panel and lithium battery businesses.

The mobile business in particular has been seeing some tough times, with Panasonic Mobile reportedly preparing to pull out of the European market altogether, leaving it covering only Asia going forward.

While Panasonic has yet to make an official statement about the 10,000 layoffs, CFO Hideaki Kawai made the plans public in an interview with Reuters. They are part of a wider strategy to reach operating profits of $2.52 billion (¥200 billion) in the next three years. At the moment a fifth of its 100 business units are losing money, and there are plans for some of these to also be sold off.

Panasonic, along with other Japanese consumer electronics giants, have been between a rock and a hard place for a while now: on the one hand, there is the global economic downturn that has seen reduced consumer spending; on the other, the rise of Chinese and Korean, and other Asian companies making similar goods for significantly cheaper prices — or simply better quality, more desirable goods — has impacted these companies’ margins. Panasonic is a grandaddy of Japanese consumer electronics — it was founded in 1918 and remains Japan’s biggest employer — but in the last five years, it has posted four annual net losses.

The 10,000 cuts come on the heels of 36,000 layoffs at Panasonic last year. Several other Japanese consumer electronics giants have also faced mass layoffs. These include 11,000 workers reportedly getting the chop at Sharp (made public in September), and Sony announcing redundancies of a further 2,800 workers in October, part of its plan to cut 10,000 in total.

The race for smaller and more innovative electronics is on, and Samsung has a stake in the space on multiple levels: as a seller of consumer electronics products itself, and as a component supplier for the products of other companies. To that end, today its investment arm, Samsung Venture Investment Corporation, announced it was leading a $20 million investment in Raydiance, a developer of laser precision solutions that are used in the manufacturing of very small, detailed components for medical, automotive and other devices.

Raydiance says the growth round will be used to expand its business into consumer electronics (like phones) as well as build out existing business serving medical and automotive customers. Existing investors Draper Fisher Jurvetson, DFJ-Growth and Greenstreet Partners also participated.

The investment is a strategic one, in that it will give Samsung better access to the technology being developed by the company. “The demand for smaller, smarter devices continues to grow,” said Jay Chong, investment director at Samsung Ventures, in a statement. “Raydiance solutions have the potential to significantly improve existing manufacturing processes and to enable exciting new products. We are investing in Raydiance to ensure that these solutions are available for a variety of high volume manufacturing applications.”

One of the distinctive points of Raydiance is that it uses a “femtosecond laser light source” for precision cutting through any material. Founded by people who come from the defense industry, Raydiance says it is the only company to have created commercial-grade ultrafast laser solutions:

The company’s breakthrough technology brings intelligent control, commercial grade availability and small form factor to ultrafast laser light. Raydiance bundles lasers in ready-to-integrate solutions – validated, factory-proven tools that save valuable time and money.

Raydiance solutions are in production today in the medical, industrial and consumer markets, but the aim is to expand the business also into consumer electronics, which would fit nicely with Samsung’s business in handsets, televisions and other products.

“Made in America.” For some reason, my parents — and the parents of many of my peers — take great pride in seeing that phrase. I’ve seen people buy inferior products just because the label on the back proclaimed that it was thrown together in one of our 50 great states instead of across some imaginary line in “another country.” Part of me wonders if people actually check to see if said claims are legitimate. As a business graduate, I fully understand the importance of producing goods within one’s borders. There’s a delicate balance that needs to be struck between imports and exports, and a huge part of a nation’s economic growth hinges on how well that balance is executed.

I suspect the generation before mine remembers a very different America than the one I’ve grown up in — one where smokestacks outnumbered high-rise buildings, and one where jobs requiring steel-toe shoes were more lauded than those requiring a fancy degree and “knowing the right guy.” Manufacturing was the backbone of America through some really, really trying times, and there’s some sense of national pride that comes along with images of swinging hammers and climbing ladders. “We built this country,” as they say.

Continue reading Made in America: could your next phone be homegrown?

Made in America: could your next phone be homegrown? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 02 Jul 2012 12:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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