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Economy

After Nokia, Will Dutch Giant Philips Be Europe's Next Electronics Brand To Implode?

Europe’s consumer electronics industry is already reeling from the recent disastrous showing of Nokia. Now Philips has announced it would stop making televisions, another sign that the historic brand is struggling to compete.

Philips light sign in Singapore (chuwasg)
Philips light sign in Singapore (chuwasg)

Europe's consumer electronics industry is growing dimmer by the day. First there was Finnish communications giant Nokia, whose profits tumbled 31% between April and June. Now, the Netherlands' Philips appears to be in serious trouble as well, according to its latest financial results.

The Dutch company announced that its sales will probably be lower than expected in two out of its three primary areas, lightning and consumer electronics. The downturn is mostly due to weak demand in Europe and the United States.

Philips' financial difficulties have been caused by the firm's intrinsic performance, but above all by weak consumption. There is no prospect of a very rosy picture for the European consumer goods industry. European people buy fewer electric razors and toothbrushes, and municipalities no longer have money to modernize theirs lightning systems.

What makes things worse is that 10 years ago, Philips decided to pull out from non-core sectors to focus on its three key fields of expertise. The company stopped, for example, manufacturing electronic components and mobile phones. Instead it stuck with electric razors, lightning and health care, sectors that are supposedly immune to recession.

Now Philips has stopped making televisions as well – its most dramatic demonstration to date that it is committed to its policy of refocusing. The company's approach over the past decade was hailed as a model for other electronics conglomerates to emulate. Not everyone did, however. Siemens, a German engineering conglomerate, continues to focus on equipment products.

What is happening to Philips lightning is particularly worrying because it is a field that is undergoing an electronic revolution with the introduction of LEDs (Light-Emitting Diodes). The new technology was supposed to make the industry expand. But competition from Asia competition and the slow progress of adopting new technologies is hindering its momentum.

The European industry, which was already taken aback by Nokia's incredible fall, did not need this extra headache. Philips has not made the same strategic mistakes as Nokia. It has not thrown itself at the feet of an American company in order to save itself from wreckage. Nonetheless, some observers are wondering whether Philips is going to meet with the same fate as Nokia. The next few months could prove to be critical for the company's future.

Read the original article in French.

Photo - chuwasg

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Society

Iran: Time To Ask What The Protest Movement Did And Didn't Achieve

Impatient to be rid of a 40-year dictatorship, many Iranians have sunk into despair at the failure of protests last year to topple the Islamic Republic. They must be patient and sober in their immediate expectations, before a longer, ongoing process of change turns Iran into a free nation with the rule of law.

Iran's women defy headscarf law in Tehran, Iran

Iran's women defy headscarf law in Tehran, Iran, 03 March 2023.

Yusef Mosaddeqi

-Analysis-

Transformation is, by nature, both visible and essential. The mutation of living beings is reflected in changing appearances that herald a new being and life cycle, emerging with the demise of a prior form.

Like creatures, societies also change, even if a longstanding, complex society may find it tougher to evolve. Indeed, the more deep-seated its cultural moorings, the greater the pain of its mutation. Yet transformation is essential to a nation's endurance.

Iran is today in the middle of such a mutation, a phase of which included the months-long protests of 2022. The difference between those protests and previous movements against the clerical regime was, firstly, their duration, and secondly, their collective impact on the consciousness of Iranians.

In other words, a large mass of Iranians with differing perspectives came to see them as a reflection of the state of the country and its direction, which makes the protests a historic landmark.

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