If you were born in the 80s/90s, there is no doubt that you grew up with Japanese electronics brands. Sony, Sharp, Panasonic and JVC to name a few. I can even remember at one point, if it wasn’t a Japanese brand TV or audio player, people didn’t want it. The other options were basically invisible or nonexistent.
Photos taken at a local auto goods and service store called Yellow Hat.
It’s a fact that when it comes to quality, Japanese brands are of the highest caliber. But over the years, Chinese brands have been ramping up on their quality control gaining more trust in the minds of consumers. The term “made in China” carries far less stigma than it did a decade ago.
While disposable income has increased over the past decades for many nations, inflation has held down the actual increase in spending power leading consumers to search for alternatives that fit their needs and means.
Two things happened
in my opinion that opened the minds of consumers to Chinese electronics. The first thing was the invention of the iPhone, designed in the US, made in China. People got to see first hand what “made in China” was capable of and began to trust it as Apple, the company many have trusted for years slapped their logo and seal of approval on it.
The other thing that happened I believe is the easy access to alternatives especially with the rise of Amazon, EBay and Alibaba. Before, consumers only saw what the electronics stores brought in. Once the online market places started selling electronics from China and the quality and price of the products reached an equilibrium, the electronic stores quickly followed, fulfilling the needs of more price conscious consumers.
Today, many still prefer Japanese consumer electronics especially when it comes to cameras,TVs, audio equipment, printers and game consoles. However, there are now countless alternatives ( not so much for games) and though most would prefer to buy the Japanese brands, they realize that the premium price and quality do not out way the quality and lower cost of the alternatives like it once did. Do you agree? Sony Tv over a Hisense or Changhong? Those brands probably don’t ring a bell for most even though they are two of the top Tv manufacturers out of China.
In summary, people are getting poorer and looking for the best deals when it comes to consumer electronics. I’ll leave you with some interesting statistics bellow.
source: ChatGPT
