Wow, that was truly their glory days. Right before they came out with the world’s first Android phone around 2008 and enjoyed ever increasing success over the next few years. I’m sure the environment/morale there is quite different now.
This is problem for Taiwanese businesses that have to do marketing. They’re bound to have conflicting goals with engineering, and then the dysfunctionality begins.
Contract work, no problem. TSMC, Foxconn, still doing well.
Korea, like Taiwan, is family oriented. And they have issues with the chaebol giving top positions to family members. But it doesn’t seem to hold them back from building brand names.
Yip, it was 10 percent of the market at the time worldwide. Remember landing in Madrid one time and there was a huge stories-high ad for HTC. They were big. Stock sheets were really generous (so were CNY parties). Work environment was really cool for Taiwan. Lots of brainstorming, cool and young team (lots of Cher`s younger relatives --really down to earth and friendly) as much drinks/soups etc. as you could eat, really cool to see products from conceptualization to roll out.
I was in my 20s and it was a fun, fun time.
Yes, that’s the million dollar question. Who would have guessed how these 2 economies diverged from the viewpoint of, say, 1980 or even 1990. Just look at the trend in GDP per capita of the 2 countries over the last 30-40 years. South Korea has blown past Taiwan when it was once behind.
Korea is based on the chaebol. Taiwan --it is SMEs. SMEs often think short term without investing in RD etc.
HTC, in my opinion, spent a lot on RD and had deep pockets. And its top leadership were very international (living in the US, educated there, etc.). But being innovative (which they were) and maintaining that momentum is a harder task. Kudos to them though. They really tried to make it and took risks that many Taiwan companies would not do. Have a lot of respect for this Company.
Have a funny story about HTC involving Forumosa. I was in a management meeting once (with owner family members) when a former moderator called me on my cell about a lengthy suspension they gave me. I took the call. They were shouting on the phone–practically frothing at the mouth. People at the meeting did not understand what was being said --only that someone was very angry. I laughed and said it was not a good time and we could talk about it at the next Happy Hour. 
I think the people at the meeting thought I was going through a breakup or something.
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Taiwan is still ahead when adjusted for PPP. And economists prefer the PPP measure. Maybe the adjustment is inflated.
But in any case, Taiwan has branding issues. Asus and Acer have done well, but people aren’t buying laptops like they used to.
I would be good interested I n reading a book about the fall of HTC.
Not exactly tech companies, but how about the 2 bicycle companies: Giant & Merida? They seem to hold their own in a global context, no?
Yeah, I know nothing about those two companies. I own a giant and didn’t even know Merida was Taiwanese.
Maybe it’s b cause there’s no Samsung to compete against? Haha.
Samsung is entering the foundry business. TSMC better watch its back.
You do realize that for a longggggggg time, people thought that TSMC would never ever ever catch up to the technology level of Intel as there would always be a “lag”, due to TSMC being a fab.
Well, look how that played. TSMC now better than Intel.
So, Samsung (and China counterparts) have a longgggg way to go to catch up with TSMC.
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I used to work there. We started an exodus way back in 2016, especially after Chou left. Some did because upper management, especially the foreign ones, were being replaced by clueless local folks. When I left, the company felt like a shell of its former glory. Best town hall (in terms of suspense) I’ve been in was when they announced the Google acquisition. Everybody was on edge, thinking they’d be let go. Tough times, exciting, like a freaking elimination night on some talent show, but wouldn’t want to experience it again.
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It is just the nature of the world and business that all companies will eventually fail to a lesser or greater degree. Intel missed the shift from PC to mobile, IBM screwed up the shift from server to PC, etc etc. Just a question of how long the window lasts for each company. Even Apple & Google will one day fail or at least be a small remnant of what they are today.
I asked my cousin how TSMC can be producing the smallest microhip when they don’t design their own chips. Never made sense to me. He said they don’t have to design. Just study how the latest chip is made and make it smaller. Then establish standard operating procedures for making it.
Yep.
The only way, so far, for ChiComm fabs to “try” and catch up to TSMC is industrial espionage. Enough cases around the internet to see this.
I remember the end of the 90’s, visited almost every exhibition looking for novelties, Taiwan was good at that. They took a product and made something different out of it and sold it worldwide. The only problem was, ‘how many containers you want?’. It was simple, no R&D, just soft-copy-change something and sell.
A few companies, bikes I remember, where actually starting doing some engineering and innovation.
Most others just did contract work and started spinning off their own brand built on the original product.
Yeah, I recall Giant & Merida used to make bikes as good as anybody in the world. And those brands were known outside of Taiwan.
Yeah those easy wins are long gone. And Shenzhen better at it too.
Interesting but not quite true.
The smallest Chips now are using UV laser tech and I heard the manufcaturing architecture is changing. I am sure they have a lot of smart people working there. Each part of the process is probably tricky and complex and requires a lot of experience to get right.
But of course Taiwanese are masters at this. It’s a very similar story with biosensors, where they are shrinking them every single year and reducing the component costs.
Some companies like TSMC are willing to invest to keep ahead of the game. I think they still have a bright future as the capital costs and the technical barriers seem to be increasing not decreasing. Each UV laser system costs 100 million USD or something ! TSMC is willing to put big money on the line to maintain it’s lead.
‘The thinking is clearly that two big changes would be too much to handle. Gary Patton, GlobalFoundries’ chief technology officer, describes the 7-nm process even without EUV as “an extreme sport.” If things work out and foundries can keep the tool running 80 percent of the time or more—which both GlobalFoundries and TSMC say they can do—EUV will actually make the 7-nm process simpler and cheaper. To understand why, though, you have to have a good grasp of how chipmaking is done now.’
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Waddya mean used to? Still do.
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Yes, I did think they still do. But the previous comment that I replied to somehow made me think that I was wrong. Guess not. They make bikes as good as anybody in the world TODAY.