The Death of Europe's Last Electronics Giant

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Philips was once the largest tech company in Europe, the world leader in lighting, radio and physical media, the third largest electronics company in the world, etc. Today they are almost irrelevant. Here's why.
The Story Behind - ep. 95
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[@TechAltar]

Get Nebula using my link for 40% off an annual subscription: go.nebula.tv/techaltar Podcast: Nebula video (every Friday): nebula.tv/chillout Nebula audio (every Friday): nebula.tv/chilloutpod Everywhere else (every Saturday, audio-only): art19.com/shows/the-friday-chillout

[@dongshengdi773]

I want to buy Phillips vibe rator

[@andibrema]

@@dongshengdi773 I r8 ur vibe 8/8 m8

[@jonasrichardrichter]

Does this discount apply only for the first year or permanently?

[@arnold_m_xavier]

We still have Philips power house, a tape recorder bought in 1991 in working condition. It is a wooden tape recorder with stereo wooden box speakers. It has dual cassette slots to transfer the recording from A to B. It has a built in equalizer, FM radio and audio CD mode

[@arnold_m_xavier]

It is very saddening to see true innovators like LG and Philips going dead, and to see idiotic companies like xiaomi and BBK flourish

[@rogerwilco2]

I worked at the Philips physics lab (NatLab) for a while in the mid-nineties. I have two clear memories from that time that showed the state of the company: 1) There were "idea boxes" in several locations, but nobody would empty them. 2) I know a guy there that was a very early adopter of MP3, and suggested the walk-man division to make a portable MP3 player two years before the first ones hit the market. He was laughed out of the room, mostly because he didn't have a PhD. The management was very top down, and very hierarchical, only those with the highest levels of academic training and management levels were allowed to have any ideas. This made it impossible to notice trends and made it a very inward looking organisation.

[@Salvo78106]

Now that same guy is laughing watching Philips dying lmao.

[@JKRavenBlood]

One notable example; cd-i. Let's keep this Phillips only..sure it will catch on 😜

[@nlocnil3602]

Sounds absolutely frustrating

[@edmathon5952]

True, very true.

[@Azzysdesignworks]

Ive heard stories of offices that were officially closed, but the paychecks kept coming, so it became a hangout spot. Was told by friends that a few of those people got degrees while getting paid since they were never asked to work or report to anything.

[@IdeaBoxful]

Philips is an example of what happens when you replace engineers with MBA's and beancounters.

[@ReneWeber]

I fully agree with you. I worked for IEC (world electrical standardization) and had been in contact with Philipps' top researchers. Already in the 90s they felt deeply concerned about the influence of the financial layer in management. Living now in south east Asia, I am closely tracking the heritage.

[@rgfromkl3594]

As an MBA holder working in corporate, I completely agree with you

[@GeoNeilUK]

As happened to so many other former great companies. Commodore for one. Or make the mistakes that the British did and let politicians meddle. We invented the concept of using computers for business purposes and it came from a tea merchant of all things (J. Lyons & Co) that all got folded into ICL which is now part of Fujitsu. See also British Leyland.

[@jayantadas8259]

These dumb MBAs know one thing, maximize profits by outsourcing manufacturing to China.

[@6581punk]

@@GeoNeilUK The Labour governments of the 70s nationalising things pretty much killed off car production and other things.

[@NSS7]

Toshiba in many ways are similar. They invented flash memory and once had large memory division (now called Kioxia), sold image sensor to Sony, healthcare to Canon, sold home appliance to Midea (sell electronic under Toshiba brand), tv business to Hisense. Now mostly involved in non-consumer product like power plant, elevator, lighting, energy system, railway system, automotive parts, hydrogen.

[@kbhasi]

Yep! As far as I could tell, their memory and flash storage division was spun off into Kioxia, and their PC division was spun off into Dynabook.

[@jpcreeper13]

General Electric too!

[@azynkron]

Makes sense since the margins on enduser products are very small.

[@ArifIkhwan-if4fp]

Toshiba produce everything. From transistors to transformators, electromotors until Generator and Turbine for steam Engine and Water Dam.

[@LowFatCurrantBun]

Sounds similar to a video I watched about the destinies of Kodak & FujiFilm. It was not that Kodak failed look to the future beyond film photography; it was just that they chose what eventually turned out to be the wrong sides. Interestingly enough, FujiFilm is nowadays also huge in healthcare imaging as well, among other things.

[@unclepete100]

I worked on an assembly line for Philips’ vacuum tubes in the early sixties! The transistor manufacturing part of the plant was out of bounds to mere mortals then, it was very hush hush... PS: interesting bit of trivia: Philips, in cooperation with Gazelle ( a Dutch bicycle manufacturer) produced the first e-bike before the Second World War

[@armandorochez6037]

Wow!

[@Erreul]

Actual neat tidbit, thanks.

[@detective_solar]

Interesting

[@user-nw3ks5li3x]

Wow,

[@dand5829]

I worked for Philips in the 2010s. It's an extremely top heavy company that prioritizes paying outrageous salaries to the people working in Eindhoven over investing in developing new technology. Hard to compete when you spend all your money hiring middle managers rather than the engineers who do the work. I was a middle manager.

[@andrew_koala2974]

When I was studying Electronics Engineering with PHILIPS in the late 1960s (whilst serving in the MILITARY) AIR FORCE --- PHILIPS WERE paying me $25 a week -- Their upper-level / Executive management were paid at various rates between $150 - $220 per week -- That was a huge amount of money in those days, PHILIPS were making a fortune - and money was flowing like water -- not only with Domestic and industrial Electronics - PHILIPS also had a contract to manufacture and fit the avionics for our F/A 18 HORNET which was replacing the F-111 As an AIR FORCE Pilot - my salary was being supplemented by the GOVERNMENT

[@gabrieleguerrisi4335]

"I can blame you but I shoul not" 😂

[@NazriB]

Lies again? Don't Die Pig Heads

[@92trdman]

Miss manage as you mention it

[@bighands69]

Absolute nonsense.

[@Ex0dia5]

I'm Dutch and my step father worked at Phillips for over 30 year. He lived all over Asia for years working for Phillips. He's been retired for over a decade now, but still gets his pension from Phillips, but has no love left for the company at all. He has witnessed the mismanagement and mistakes at Phillips first hand and has seen it get worse over the years during his retirement. The company is a former shell of itself and it makes him sad. The company was a lot bigger and important when he started there at the beginning of his career. He told me recently during Christmas holidays that the he knew and worked with the current CEO of Phillips. He said in the old days before he was CEO he would always point the finger at someone else and always find blame in someone other then himself when things went wrong. It's a shame Phillips could have been so much bigger and more important in the global electronic consumer market but it was all wasted due to bad decisions made primarily by management.

[@TheBooban]

I think thats the same with all failed western companies. Which seems to be most of them. They got taken over by jerks.

[@LeutnantJoker]

Europe at the moment is doing its best to destroy every bit of tech and manufacturing we have left. The chemical and electronics industries were first, the automotive industry will soon follow. And the fact that Poland, when they want to invest in nuclear power, is no longer turning to Germany, but to South Korea, is also quite telling regarding the state of Europe in any high tech.

[@lucasRem-ku6eb]

Exodias, WHY YOU CRY ANONYMOUS ????? Philips lightning, Singapore, Philips Taipei, do i know him ? I would call him no to say how evil you are here. WHY YOU DO THAT ? Roy Jakobs is all new to me, singapore i never was, you don't understand your father i guess, shame ? Margins in semiconductors, mosfet ? Only ASML is lucrative enough to make margins. Why you say this, why so stupid? SHAME ON YOU !

[@OkarinHououinKyouma]

I stopped buying their products because of poor after sales services

[@ps4games164]

The bad management coming from agreements with the competition. Agreements that allowing the company to target just specific people, not every potential customer. And another thing - the products are to be made to not last forever in order to secure steady sales.

[@petebateman143]

My brother used to work for Philips. He left because the entire management structure was toxic.

[@charlesvanderhoog7056]

Yes, I was once asked by a senior manager in their ICT division whether there was a size beyond which a company could not fail. Philips lost its spirit long ago. I attended meetings on its HiFi consumer electronics and we were always met with a wall of conservative stupidity.

[@ritwikchattopadhyay3543]

In 1990s, my family in India had our first color TV, made by Philips, it was an awesome TV set. It still works today.

[@LamboSpyder99]

As a techie, I believe there will be more such companies which will fail because of hiring more managers than engineers or skilled workers.

[@deckard5pegasus673]

This is very true. In a modern company, the percentage of people that "actually do something" aka engineers, etc, is very low. Whilst the majority of employees are in Bullsh*t jobs like managers, paper pushers, etc. In fact there is a good book called "Bullsh*t jobs". It is worth a read.

[@rodrigoandrescoloane]

​@@deckard5pegasus673 I work at dell and they prioritize in the sales team all the way.....I mean having sales is good but, technology is such a risky industry.....imo the ones who keep it running are the R&D and the people who make the product happen. A good product sells by itself nowdays.

[@raimondsstokmanis1892]

I think it will happen to EVERY company after a certain amount of time. Inevitable.

[@Nine-Signs]

@@deckard5pegasus673 David Graeber. The author of your book and the main who invented the phrase "we are the 99%" during the London occupy movement. A great man much loved and missed. Other notable works: Debt: The First 5,000 Years.

[@razorwireclouds5708]

There's also a complete lack of true marketers at Philips. Good riddance.

[@peterjansen4826]

I am Dutch and into technology. I can tell you that Philips has been dying as a tech company for decades, in the 80's/90's it started to go downhill. Why? They cut on R&D in the Netherlands and internationally. They started to buy other companies (like medical diagnostic equipment) instead of developing technology. At its high point Philips got the greatest minds to its campus in Eindhoven to lecture the engineers, including Einstein.

[@djoetma]

Fun fact: Karl Marx stayed with the family in Zaltbommel (with the parents of the brothers). I don't agree that Philips was dying. They made the choice to shrink down the company and it probably was the right choice. Look what happened to the likes of Nokia, Ericsson, Gründig and to a lesser extent Siemens. It's not a coincidence that all these European tech companies fell away. It actually isn't just in Europe. Look at companies like Motorola in the US and Sharp in Japan.

[@fungo6631]

​@@djoetma These are going away because of red communist сhіnks playing dirty and stealing any tech they can.

[@aayaatable]

They don't have a choice, declining demographics will lead to this, Japan is in a similar situation as well

[@junaidmzafar]

All I know Philips for now is shavers and toothbrushes

[@howardsimpson489]

@@djoetma And RCA. A bit like the UK car industry.

[@davidbrewer7937]

I spent nearly 40 years in electronics & at the turn of the milemium, Philips was one of my major clients. They were an amazing firm & being bound by confidentiality contract, allowed me access to thier R&D in Eindhoven where I spent a lot of time working on various things which included something called gun pitch modulation in CRT deflection. It was a fantastic invention & had they designed it maybe 5 years earlier would have been as big as the Trinitron was for Sony...

[@AudieHolland]

Nah, Philips failed miserably in the marketing of their products. So even if they had developed that tv before Sony did... Btw, Sony had a fantastic name for their televisions: Trinitron. Can you remember a single Philips tv product name? I do. Compare: Sony - Trinitron Philips - 100 Hz television with Digital Scan They did make excellent television sets, but again, marketing was not their strong point.

[@TheDutchMitchell]

@@AudieHolland philips ambilight

[@AudieHolland]

@@TheDutchMitchell Now that was a great name. Don't know how succesful the product was though.

[@Teporame]

I was an engineer at Philips consumer electronics. We used to say that the company was a tech giant with brittle marketing feet. I loved the company, the training, the culture, the pride to work there. I learned a lot. Very sad to see it gone. I was working for another company when the plant closed and I bought the last equipment before the closing. A tear runs down my cheek…..

[@adamevans1989]

It's also left its mark on the actual geography of the Netherlands. Before Philips, Eindhoven was an insignificant city surrounded by some small villages, but due to Philips it grew into the large city it is today.

[@daarom3472]

it's still an insignificant city surrounded by some small villages. No one here ever goes to Eindhoven unless you absolutely have to.

[@thunderb00m]

@@daarom3472 lmao chill bro

[@obimk1104]

I live in Eindhoven, Eindhoven city is small, but Eindhoven "gathered" various small church towns surrounding Eindhoven, Stratum, Strijp, Tonglere, Woensel, Blixembosch. They all turned in neighborhoods. The latest modern addition is Meerhoven. (last 20 years,

[@daarom3472]

@@thunderb00m just calling it how it is. It's like living in the US and saying the car industry turned Detroit in a major metropole.

[@flp322]

@@daarom3472 they've got one of the country's best universities of technology there, as well as ASML, a company of global significance (discussed in the video), along with plenty of other companies in the technology industry (such as NXP, also discussed in the video). It may not have the allure of Amsterdam or Rotterdam, but it's hardly 'insignificant'.

[@rohypnotist6263]

My aunt spent her whole career working as an executive secretary and had a front row seat to all of it .She's been retired for 10 years now but her stories are fascinating .She worked for the second in command at the headquarters office.I got my first electric razor from her as a 12th birthday gift

[@nathasyapramudita6312]

Care to share some of your aunt story?

[@rohypnotist6263]

@@nathasyapramudita6312 I would if I could but I'm 47 and she told them to me as a teenager .Too much time has past for me to remember them well enough to repeat .30 years is a long time

[@abdelrahmaneldesouki]

That's a story enough for me. Thanks ❤️

[@lucasRem-ku6eb]

Hello Clubber I guess i know who your ant is. The Razor company in Drachten is still in operation, was that the last production facility in Holland ? She was there too,when the mad guy dd the breadche, widescreen, the wrong building, when they just moved from the Rembrandt into the new building. You should upload some stories here, toggetter ?

[@rohypnotist6263]

@@lucasRem-ku6eb She worked at the Belgian HQ in Turnhout

[@paulclarke8184]

This is pretty spot on - I worked at Philips Research for 7 years in the 90's, including on CD-i, and yes the company direction was repeatedly wrong. Very sad. Worked with some great people.

[@marknemeth267]

I had a Philips MP3 player, MP4 player, earphones and I used them a lot. I also have a Philips electric shaver (OneBlade) which still works. We had a Philips TV too, it worked fine as well. We also have a Philips radio which still works as well, but we hadn't used it in a long time. So in general it was a good company. Bit sad that it is not active in the consumer electronics industry, but hey, this happens.

[@meganharris4138]

I used to work at a company that was bought out by Philips (which was then rebranded to Philips Neuro) making brain scan equipment. I can't stress enough how horrified I still am by how little the management cared about making a quality product. Finding out their management has always made baffling decisions isn't too surprising.

[@Bejaardenbus]

It hasn't 'always' made baffling decisions. They started doing that when the MBAs came in and took over. There's a reason it was a gigantic company that produced some of the best equipment ever put out by anyone.

[@nnnn7404]

The target of most of those smaller companies is to be bought by a big company like Philips/sms/abbot or whatever.

[@sanjitrath9114]

large companies often get lost in layers of management and over time their management gets disillusioned disoriented and live in an alternative reality. Case in point - Boeing overlooked safety which resulted in one of the largest callbacks and losses in history

[@jamesforte-mason8849]

BT are the same, like a wafer biscuit, layer after layer of pointless and clueless managers all trying to account for their existence

[@laface2361]

I actually left philips medical shortly after the apnea drama and my experiences were similair, the fact my superior deliberately tried to hide bad samples when production was already not going too well is something I'm not going to forget soon, especially if you consider the products we made were also for a very vulnerable group of people

[@hooah2008]

I’m an engineer at Philips around Eindhoven, and while summing up certain facts may look bad, it doesn’t feel bad for me because all the talents and spinoffs that Philips produced have created a very successful tech industry around Eindhoven. The company may be a shadow of what it once was, but the region is stronger than ever, which benefits many people.

[@tired2sleep]

I visited Eindhoven during my work trip through ASML and it was eye opening how much influence Philips had on the country and the industries it birthed. Especially when I visited Strijp S, it showed what kind of legacy Philips had created.

[@cristianh.5133]

There’s absolutely nothing special about Eindhoven. I’ve lived there for years and it’s one of the most boring cities in the Netherlands. Culturally dead, awful housing market, dull architecture, high crime rate in the middle of the city…no landmarks, nothing, it’s an industrial city and I can definitely see why their weakness became lack of creativity. It’s a city for the rich and established who look to increase their wealth or retire. Nothing conducive to creativity. Not to mention the attitude of locals towards immigrants. Sad stuff, as it’s a city that’s so we’ll positioned and has so much potential.

[@madxp9668]

It may work well in that region and help alot of ppl around getting jobs or other benefits But on the other hand, it doesn't "innovative" anymore, more like sub con producing products for larger brand, losing its own identity Giving up innovation and totally disconnected from the market trend Remember LG

[@Mynipplesmychoice]

Phillips failed because they should have bought in a American CEO. Americans know how to combine creativity and knowing how to make money.

[@asbestosfibers1325]

Irrelevant.

[@user-yz6rw3si3e]

I remember my parents buying a Philips double casette deck back in the 90s which made it convenient for making mixed tapes with the option of making the recording process shorter by using a double speed option. It was a system which sounded exemplary as well, and it had a switch to enhance bass. One of our neighbours also bought the same model after a demo at our house on a visit. Sad to see the company fall.

[@abibabol]

Paying higher salaries and attention to those so called MBAs compared to core employees is the biggest reason for the downfall of all those tech giants.

[@Asianometry]

I wanted to do a video on Philips' decline for a long time. Now the story has been so well done that I feel I can't ever make a video on it. Great work

[@TechAltar]

Thanks, I'm glad you liked it! Seeing how well the video is performing for me I'm sure there is space for you to talk about he company as well if you pick another angle or something :)

[@thisnameisok]

doooo iittttttt

[@Ikbeneengeit]

Maybe there's a business school analysis out there? Lessons learned etc. I'm interested in WHY Phillips kept failing.

[@ipdavid1043]

Frankly speaking, I follow your channel and only interested in your expertise on high tech but then you are not really good but yet focus on non high tech companies or industries. So what is the point of saying: I always want to do a video on Philips…

[@jeff4362]

Thanks a lot to @TechAltar for this video because it was definitely a big story in tech history that somehow wasn't covered much (probably cause it's not American or Japanese). Very happy to hear the story of Philips. I think there's room for another video that goes in depth in the Philips-Sony duo in physical tech.

[@LAKXx]

The thing i used to like about Philips is that their products where sturdy and durable. I still have multiple electronics going strong after nearly 20 years of abuse while other brands of the same product broke down long ago

[@Dice-Z]

Yep. And they (mostly used) to have such high quality tech & electronics, especially audio equipement wise, that i could by 10€ earbuds or 100€ portable MP3/USB speakers that would last me years, and have superior quality, compared to all the typical brands like Apple selling you shit that breaks in months if not days (my record is like a couple hours for 50€ Apple earbuds) that would be priced two, to five, and sometimes even TEN times more expensive, for a quarter of its lifespan and similar if not worse quality. Especially those, god forbid, absolute garbage Apple earbuds.

[@AshwinSriram]

My dad owned a Philips TV (his first one) that lasted over 20 years. It would have lasted even more had not a service guy messed it up. I own a CD-based music player from Philips that still works to this day (although I use it very rarely). I bought it 20 years ago.

[@Jezzaaa]

My father has a radio from Phillips from 1974. Still works after 50 years, with dirt and grime on the outside

[@slome815]

My 1962 philips radio I inherited from my grandfather also still works. All vacuum tubes, and it sounds great.

[@lucadipaolo1997]

@@AshwinSriram I have a Philips CRT that I use for playing retro games, it was manufactured in 1998 and still works perfectly. Someone managed to rip off the front buttons, but I use the remote anyway lol.

[@Dudleymiddleton]

I do remember the compact cassete recorder with that simple transport mechanism push up to play, pull down to stop, left or right to fast wind, and red button plus push forward to record. Then they started getting more complex like everything else!

[@GPCBuilder]

it is sad up until 2:30 because ive had a philips indoor tv antenna from like the 90s and it still works. They will still be the tech giant they used to be in our hearts

[@robwulz3493]

The death cycle of big companies always reads the same , and should always be on your mind if you work at one . My boss was very angry with us one day about feedback to improve my floors efficiency . He opened the suggestion box he had installed , to find a note saying " read the suggestions " signed and dated from me , 4 months ago .

[@fazerider9287]

My father would have been saddened by this, though not surprised. He worked for Mullard, which became Philips Research Laboratories, based near Redhill in Surrey, UK. He was frequently exasperated by Philips’ management decisions. One year, Philips made a rather poor pay offer, but tried to sweeten the deal by including a fully funded private medical insurance package. The staff argued they’d prefer a better pay rise instead, but eventually accepted. The medical insurance scheme came back to haunt Philips. It was a lifetime deal and covered a spouse too. Belatedly, they realised premiums were becoming extremely costly as the workforce aged and they decided to renege on the deal. The staff, many of them now retired, fought a group action in the courts and won. Philips then had to pay for both parties’ legal expenses in addition to continuing to fund the medical insurance. In the eighties my father, together with almost every other member of staff over the age of 55 years, was made redundant because management decided the average age of employees at the lab was too high.

[@steveg5129]

My Father also worked at Mullard / PRL from the 60's unit the early 90's. He was in the machine shop, where he and his colleagues worked on mechanical components of many of the prototypes which Phillips had in deleopment at the time. They also used to make occasional parts for satellites and experimantal military systems, and Phillips also did some contract work at the site for other companies. The workshops and everything on that part of the site was closed down shortly after my father retired and half the site was sold off. A few years later the rest of the site was sold and Phillips were said to be moving their R&D to Eindhoven.

[@fazerider9287]

@@steveg5129 They may well have met then, my father had a high regard for the abilities of the folks in the machine shop. In the 80’s I worked briefly in Systems Division on the south side of the site and revisited the site occasionally via Google Earth over the years. It was sad to see it derelict, then demolished and now occupied by warehouses.

[@Bader1940]

My first job from University in 1988 was at PRL, Salfords, near Redhill. Now it's a storage facility. I still live in the area but have spent the rest of my career in tech working for Americans. In the late 80s there was already a feeling of decay, which is why I left. A great shame.

[@grahamstevenson1740]

Ericsson too made the mistake of letting their 'too old' staff go. Pure insanity.

[@Uptimind]

Firing workers who are too "old" is such a dumb move. Here in Copenhagen there's an electronics component store (Brinck / Elextra) - and they still have a dude working there who's my father's age. A can't believe he isn't pensioned yet: he must be close to 70. He's worked there for at least 28 years. I thought about that the last time I saw him. Made me appreciate the fact that his brain is such a HUGE reservoir of knowledge. Letting him go would be insanely dumb. He has the expertise to serve customers, and make sure they always get the help they need - even with the nerdiest of requests. On the other hand, there's also a camera store here in Copenhagen (Photografica) - and it used to be seen as a deluxe dealer of professional cameras, used cameras (Hasselblad, Rolleiflex, Leica, etc) with a repair facility, etc - and staffed by highly skilled photography experts. Now, the last time I went there, I was shocked that they were only staffed by teenagers, who knew very very little about even elementary photographic history or techniques. I lost a LOT of respect for that store.

[@TheodoreRavindranath]

Amazing content! So well researched and nicely presented. Thanks!

[@martijnkamminga8229]

I just found your channel. You are delivering quality work. Great job. Really cool!🎉

[@TechAltar]

Welcome aboard!

[@ChristianWagner888]

My father worked at the Aachen Philips research lab for 30 years as an electronics engineer until the early nineties. The research was still interesting at the time developing fiber optics production quality control devices for example. The bureaucratic management style stifled a lot of innovation though and my father was generally dissatisfied with management together with other engineers in his group.

[@jondataco7643]

How cool, i live in Aachen

[@Azimus81]

While I grew up in Aachen, there was not only the Philips research center, but also a lightning factory and a monitor factory. Thousands of jobs were lost there in the last 25 years.

[@abishek4300]

​@Carlavagnen 13 Quattroporte?

[@e39exclusiveclubpanama33]

I worked for philips in the supply chain dept. They rarely manufactures their stuff they usually use something called LM that is legal manufacturer in their medical field such as ultrasound imaging and MATCso it isn't surprising at all

[@SiddharthaKS1983]

This is very disheartening story.

[@MHPloni-kl5ec]

Interestingly, a Philips hair trimmer I bought in 2018 is perhaps the best designed, engineered, and manufactured consumer product I've ever purchased.

[@bandombeviews6035]

Same lol. I've never had a single issue with my oneblade, even intentionally trying to cut myself with it, just to see if I could.

[@ulzs7683]

I had a Philips trimmer made in Hungary for 10 years No even exaggerating

[@g3nov3s]

Really, I have two Phillips hair trimmers - one made in the early 2000s in Europe and the other one made more recently in China. The newer one is crap, the power cable simply started to disintegrate after a while, while the old one is still going strong.

[@Schlipperschlopper]

made in China = Crap.

[@fetB]

I have this one blade thing, which is a trimmer but very fine and its great as a wet shaver. I get very close to a blade shave. A less wasteful head would probably better, though.

[@daveinthailand]

I had most these products cassette recorder and video 2000 recorders also i had the Philips ee1003 electronics kits released in the 70s sad to see them go 😢

[@bunface]

I worked at Philips Design briefly before everything went burst in 2009. IMO one of the big reasons that Philips went down was they stopped recognizing actual values, such as tech and innovation, as the core of the company. They value "brand" more than anything else. They took a very high stance on their Philips brand when in reality no one really cares about it anymore. They often buy smaller up and coming companies that had success in their respective fields, and Philip's goal was always to replace them and wipe that brand off the market. That really pissed off major retailers that valued the smaller brands more than Philips. They also rely on OEM to fill their product line up, and often it was up to the design team to create value. However, even within the design teams, politics meant that their design talents spread all over the world had little chance to interact and collaborate, which was a huge shame. I used to hear all the amazing stories from veteran designers who worked in different design offices all over the world between the 80s and 90s, and wished i was born three decades earlier.

[@victorshopov4913]

I work at the former Philips campus in Eindhoven and it is kinda sad to see all of old research labs being repurposed as office spaces. In fact the whole city was centered around Philips at some point, where entire neighborhoods would be just production facilities. Now they have all been repurposed for housing. Philips Research still exists, but as far as I know it is on a much smaller scale and they focus mostly on medical-related research. As you said, they have mostly given up on having their R&D stay in the Netherlands. The recent recalls of their respirators also caused a lot of problems for them, so I'm not that optimistic about their future given their track record. Seeing a giant fall this hard is both fascinating and sad at the same time.

[@cohenworrior898]

The problem with the respirators, that's karma.

[@wolfgangdevries127]

I remember the Evoluon in Eindhoven. I am that old :)

[@interstat2222]

They had an incredible run of success for a European company considering how much competition they had from the far east. It's a lesson in not making short sighted decisions in business. A shame though.

[@gr8vijay]

So, you work in HTC ?

[@LadypinkItBlog]

Update: "Philips Research still exists", it will not in the very next months.

[@kevin_g1164]

My Father worked at Philips for many years. Back in the 60's they made TVs in Australia and every part and I mean every part was made locally in their local production facility. I know because dad took me there to see how everything was made from wires to vacuum tubes and picture tubes. At that time they had a research facility that was at the leading edge of solid state electronics but that facility was closed down and was moved to Singapore and the rest is history. At that time Dad took me to see the installation and commissioning of one of our first electron microscopes (you missed Philips Scientific which was also a business unit). However, the 70's it became very apparent that unless you has a strong connection with someone important in Eindhoven you would go nowhere much. Dad used to refer to the all wise and powerful men from Holland. That introspection got worse so bad mangers went up in the organization and the cancer in Eindhoven was spread globally. Then era of the accountant lead demise had started. The free fall gathered pace in the 80's. So many great ideas, inventions, new products but such poor management.

[@ArifIkhwan-if4fp]

You can make article with this... 😁

[@mvd4436]

It looks like the company still tried hard and just didn't get any home runs later in its life.

[@anonvideo738]

@@mvd4436 more like: managers their pet projects didnt score any homeruns.

[@MEGAMITSIMAN]

Same here in Naenae, across the ditch here in New Zealand. They closed up their TV manufacturing here in 1987-1988?

[@simonreiger7422]

This must've been the Adelaide facility then?

[@vikkThorero]

I think you could also mention LG Display, one of the World's largest flat panel makers, which was originally a joint venture of Philips and LG.

[@suddhojitgon5929]

Nice video. Well researched and edited. The narration is top-notch.

[@peterjansen4826]

Here a fun little anedote about Philips which you won't find on the internet but is known to some of the local people. When Philips invented the CD-player they intended to use 14 bits to encode the sound, you can thank Sony for the 2 extra bits, Sony had technological reasons for it - due to their producing business - and Sony worked with Philips on the software-side of the CD-player so eventually Sony twisted Philips its arm and Philips agreed to 16 bits. A better known secret: Philips agreed to make a CD-based console (or at least the CD-part of it) with Nintendo, that failed and that was the direct reason why Sony made its own console, the PlayStation. First Sony tried to take over from Philips for Nintendo but eventually that did not work out and Sony decided to do it themselves.

[@jaunedroite]

I mean it is a fun anecdote, but is not exactly secret and definitely on the internet. It's even part of the Wikipedia articles on it.

[@radoo86]

Wow, I did not know that.

[@Altair00rion]

Thanks for the anecdote. It was new to me!

[@YoungThos]

You could say the Philips CD-i and Sony PlayStation both came about as a result of Nintendo being impossible to work with 🙃

[@michaelharrison1093]

For several years all the initially produced Philips CD players only used 14-bit DACs so the CD you were playing might have been recorded with 16-bits, but if you owned a Philips branded CD player you only got to listen to 14-bit music.

[@florianschweiger6666]

Siemens, the last European Giant.

[@typxxilps]

my first thoght too

[@paweswierczek6265]

Nokia telecommunications also

[@me0101001000]

Don't forget ASML either. By market cap, it's the largest

[@B21_raider]

Don’t forget asml largest of em all

[@daniesalex7073]

@@paweswierczek6265 Nokia is owned by HMD

[@jonasmeier417]

Remember the Philips DCC - The Digital Compact Cassette?:-) And the boomboxes cassette & cd were great!

[@IrishInsomniac76]

I trusted the Philips brand until recently when their CPAP Dreamstation I was using for 5 years was found to contain sound deadening foam that was breaking down into carcinogenic particles. They issued a recall with no replacement for over a year. Cheap foam that can kill sums them up for me now.

[@Pakal77]

I worked at Philips Semiconductors until 2002. It's very sad knowing what's happened. "Let's make things better" was our sentence.

[@Nightdare]

By the time they used that slogan, the reality was already "Let's make things as cheap as possible (to produce)"

[@hemptinyhouse6663]

I briefly worked for Philips in the late 90’s. I remember a manager telling me how they once rearranged the words on a company sign to read “Let’s make better things”.

[@subraxas]

@@hemptinyhouse6663 😀 😀 + 😞

[@sw6188]

I used to repair CRT TVs and audio equipment in the 80s and 90s, and I dreaded getting Phillips units to look at. They were always grossly over-engineered. For example, in some TVs they had protection circuits to protect the protection circuits and if one part shut down, it took everything else down and it was then difficult to work out which section was actually the problem. We had a saying for Phillips electronics in the workshop "Let's make things overly complicated".

[@Robterdammer]

Die slogan was verzonnen door de raad van bestuur om te communiceren met het personeel dat de producten beter moesten zijn. Zo groot was de afstand tussen de directie en de designafdeling inmiddels.

[@samuelflg607]

Just imagining how big Phillips could have been if things went the right way. 1/4 of tsmc, Alone would be a game changer And that in combination with a stake in ASML Incredible

[@thunderb00m]

Executives focus on short-term profits. It's easy to see why they will take the easy way out, sell and automatically add some juicy margin to their balance sheet.

[@lucasRem-ku6eb]

Why you say outsourcing is bad, ASML, TSMC, all great companies, this is Frist Philips mission. We are bigger than ever now ! Most TSMC stock is sold now, that is the way how we developed these scanners, on Covid, we saved everyone ! Make better margins, why sell low level trash ?

[@nassimabed]

Where I come from there's a saying that translates as such: We planted "what if" and it grew to become "how I wish".

[@mishkosimonovski23]

They couldve been the "European Samsung".

[@chowderwhillis9448]

@@nassimabed I think I get what you mean but not really... what are you, Indian? Pakistani? Burmese?

[@petermilburn1214]

When I was a kid I had a Phillips electronic kit which was brilliant, in 1980 I had a Phillips boom box, brilliant. In 2006 I bought a Philips hifi which had out stations in different rooms when you went from room to room it followed you around the house. Then suddenly it wouldn't play, it apparently depended on Phillips maintaining some software for it to operate and they decided to close it down. Very disappointing.

[@android4873]

I worked as an apprentice then as a tech at the Hendon works in Adelaide in the 60s and 70s. I enjoyed my time there as part of the Philips family. This set me up for my work life like a charm. Fond memories.

[@oliverlin6220]

Just to add that Philips Records was also one of the biggest labels in classical music industry and many of the recordings are still considered to be the finest. It's fate was being absorbed into Universal Music but the American consortium decided to discontinue the Philips brand. Philips huge historical recording repertoire has been reissuing under other labels such as Decca, which is also under Universal Music. It's really a sad story that Philips declined in the music industry and they eventually sold the business. So does for EMI.

[@toku_floyd]

EMI was killed by researching developing and building the MRI scanner. It bankrupted them, the early device and everything was snatched up by an American company for peanuts.

[@kentGrey]

Wow. So basically they'd gotten to the point where they sold off all real assets along with the right to use the Phillips name, then even the name became of little worth so Universal ONLY purchased the masters and rights. That is sad.

[@leonbongers6004]

Philips was owner of polygram until 1998 the largest music company at time.

[@donnafromnyc]

Philips was also huge in pop recording in the 1960s. Dusty Springfield and the Four Seasons.

[@ntro9347]

@@donnafromnyc and jazz with Nina Simone

[@j.w.5960]

I worked for Philips Healthcare in the UK for many years in field support and on several occasions through that time bumped into people who were proud to tell me they had worked for Philips, even though they had been made redundant. The company I left (after a controversial and unpopular contract change was forced on us) was not the company I joined and I have no love for it now, it has been brought down by arrogant management who have no respect for those who actually install and fix the equipment and think the skills required can be learnt from a quality manual.

[@tedarcher9120]

With the new ceo things are changing now. No telling for the good or bad thpugh

[@tedarcher9120]

@@j.w.5960 I work at Philips now Monday to friday and specialise in IGT, I guess it was a local british madness. Still wonder how did they get such a huge change approved in Netherlands, we can't even hite a guy without their consent

[@beertlont776]

@@j.w.5960 how do people get hired to make money only for them to make choices that cost more money?

[@rafaelosorio2251]

That's what happens when they hire based on the famous soft skills rather than on the real ones.

[@OmegaGamingNetwork]

I worked for the healthcare division in the US years ago, arrogant management pretty much sums it up.

[@seanaran]

Awesome analysis! Great job 👏🏼

[@thomasvcf]

I've grown up close to the (previous) Philips HQ, having a summer construction job building their tech campus and I remember analyzing their strategies as case studies during my economics degree. My grandpa spent his entire career in their radio division, proudly representing the company in Syria, Ethiopia and beyond. My uncle worked for them all over Africa for decades. It was the benchmark of innovation at that time, 50's to 70's. What a sad fate of such a pioneer and proud heritage in the (Southern) Netherlands. At the same time, establishing 3 of the world top chip manufacturers plus so many inventions, should be a lesson to go back to basics of what made it successful; relentless innovation and smart commercialization.

[@Bussipysakillah]

My grandfather used to build Philips TVs for people in the 50s in western Finland. As a consequence they had one of the first TVs in town despite being working class, which my mother always thought was very cool. My grandmother in turn was quite pleased when she found out I had bought a Philips TV some 10 years ago (still got it). Nothing lasts forever, I guess, but it's a bit sad to hear.

[@charleshoang566]

My father in Vietnam bought a Philips radio 50 years ago and it is still working today after he died 3 years ago.

[@bittoochatterjee2661]

During Mid 1970's - Early 1980'S In India Used To Have A Few Electronics Products Made By Philips As A INDIAN Must Confess This So Called EUROPEAN ELECTRONIC PRODUCT GIANT 😁😁 THIRD GRADE TO THE CORE😁😁 ZERO AFTER SALES SERVICE🤢🤢 ZERO AFTER SALES CUSTOMER CARE 🤢🤢🤢🤢 I ANY DAY IN THE 1980'S - 1990'S PREFERED BUYING JAPANESE ELECTRONIC PRODUCTS SONY, NATIONAL, O GENERAL, PANASONIC, AKAI, NATIONAL, FUNAI COLOUR TV, VCP, VCR , MUSIC SYSTEM, WALKMAN AS AN SOUTH ASIAN PREFERED FAR EAST ASIAN MADE PRODUCTS👍👍👍👍😍😍😍😍😍😍❤❤❤❤❤❤ AND NOT SO CALLED SELF HYPED EUROPEAN COMPANY PRODUCTS 😁😁😁😁😁😁🤣🤣

[@sebastian3004]

They had TVs in fucking 50s???????? anyways Samsung made their first TV in 70s hahahaha

[@michaelharrison1093]

I work in the semiconductor industry and I am surprised how often I run into people who used to work for Philips at some point in time and companies who trace their origin back to Philips. They have certainly created a lasting legacy within the semiconductor industry, its just a shame that they couldn't work out how to make their own company successful in this highly profitable industry.

[@safwathabedin2198]

I worked there for 1.5 years. Internally it is a open and amazing workplace. Reason it is failing is thinking way too much as a volunteer company than profit driven business. And definitely some old folks making bad decision. In general, it is full of innovative and talented people. I hope this company will rise again and continue its‘ legacy.

[@joecool4656]

What do you mean by volunteer driven company? Thanks

[@gaztambo139]

Aside from the G7000 video game which I loved as a kid, nearly all the Philips products that I’ve ever owned have failed. From a TV that stopped working after 18 months, another TV that was HD ready but had a version of DVB that became obsolete as soon as HD was launched. A CD player that had a weird noise that couldn’t be fixed, VCR that stopped functioning after 2 years. Water flosser that stopped charging after 6 months, countless LED bulbs that failed well before their advertised lifespan, and a philishave shaver that gave me a neck rash, from new. I’ve tended to avoid Philips products in recent years.

[@LZentertainments]

Crazy to think if they just kept like 1-5% of some of these ventures, they would likely be one of the highest valued companies today.

[@obelic71]

The extensive red tape, to many manegers and bean counters brought Philips to it knees

[@ysbrandd4908]

@@obelic71 yeah it's sad but true, used to be an absolute behomoth and an amazing innovator now it is just razors and toothbrushes...

[@Maurazio]

the shareholders may have hold the shares of the new companies, I don't think it makes a ton of difference as long as they kept their HQ in the netherlands (which they did)

[@chriskwakernaat2328]

@@ysbrandd4908 not even those anymore..

[@chowderwhillis9448]

Yeah, pretty pathetic why not just keep a few share of TSMC, ASML or any of the other dozen companies Phillips help found and invest in, to me just makes absolutely zero sense as to why they sold of anything that could've made them money in the long run... someone over there in Phillips completely regrets all of these inane decisions and is beating themselves up to this very day...

[@MarcLeeman]

The sad thing about the dissolution of Philips is that the people responsible for its decline have or have been made to jump ship where they now apply the same proven management style on other healthy companies.

[@SirBored]

Almost like a disease 😬

[@ArifIkhwan-if4fp]

I like Phlips, U remember how durable the 21 CRT TV was, since I was 3 years old from 1985, till 1995 still works very well.

[@streamingvideo6654]

I bought a Philips LCD monitor a while back, but sadly it stopped working after like 2-3 years. I really liked that LCD. But other brands such as HP and Asus seem to last longer. I still buy and use their LED lights though, they're really well made.

[@bjornkeizers]

It really is a shame. When I was a kid, Philips was well respected as a Dutch brand, as well as a global player. They were involved in some of the best products ever invented. It's downright depressing to see how far they've fallen.

[@shaakunthala]

I have Philips lighting products in my Eindhoven home that are estimated to be about 40 years old. Still in working condition with "Made in Holland" sticker. Back in Sri Lanka, my parents had several appliances from Philips, each lasted for about 30 years. The longevity of old Philips products are truly impressive. No matter where we were in the world, we grew up with the brand. If Philips is heading towards its death, that would be a very sad news.

[@ironnoriboi]

Philips has been dead for a very long time. Vergane glorie zeggen we dan.

[@lucasRem-ku6eb]

Hello, Do you have the US smart bulbs, US company produced them early 90th, outsourced. It still is a great company, thank you. Taipei are our friends, we need to support them more then ever ! Respect Frist Philips mission !

[@chowderwhillis9448]

We had the absolutely gigantic Phillips Magnavox big screen TV back in the 90s, it must've been a 90 inch TV or something and was a CRT TV so you know it was heavy as hell and was very deep as well to hold the cathode ray tube in the back to produce the image since there were no LCD or LED TV's back then so it was an absolute behemoth of a device!!!

[@Vysair]

Do you remember those thick heavy af TV? They should lasted almost a freaking century!

[@purpleghost4083]

@@chowderwhillis9448 For anyone reading this and wondering, that would be a rear projection and not a direct-view CRT tv. Direct-view CRT tv screen size was limited to about half the size of this r-p tv, so about 40-45 inches.

[@tigerlee7189]

To Mr. TechAltar, you forgot to mention an invention of Philips it was a called "Laser Disk" for playing video format. Back in the early 80's I worked at Philips in Hamburg (Germany) and I worked at the production line of the Laser Disk. That was a transition from VHS tapes to DVD discs. This invention didn't live long and died in about 2-3 years later and was replaced by DVD format. The Laser discs wasn't popular anyway due to the high price to buy or even to rent a movie, not to mention the laser laser disk player you also had to buy as well to be able to play the movie. Cheers to you and thank you to bring me back to my old days.

[@dipiti8739]

I remember the Philips Valve radio that had worked again after I washed it from inside well (and let it dry).

[@timovandrey]

I worked at Philips in Hamburg for 6 years. The biggest thing I was always stunned about was that they just shut down R&D more and more, and had other big departments closed due to (in my non-managerial eyes) mismanagement.Its very unfortunate, given how Hamburg was the birth place of the Röntgen/X-Ray tubes. The apprenticeship however was top notch, and working there was interesting!

[@Muldini]

I actually remember when they replaced the gigantic Röntgenmüller logo on their Fuhlsbüttel building with the Philips logo.

[@timovandrey]

@Muldoni I was once on top of the new office building directly behind the logo because they didn't close it in the beginning. It was a very nice view, although it was just a crossing lol. But that must be very long ago, since I can't remember a Röntgenmüller sign. When did that happen?

[@Muldini]

@@timovandrey The switch must have been late 80s. The huge RÖNTGENMÜLLER sign was somewhat of a landmark, probably 20m wide and visible from the Alsterkrugchaussee. I went to school at Ratsmühlendamm in the 70s so I walked past it daily.

[@mananasi_ananas]

I work at a company which used to be Philips. We're still doing very interesting stuff with X-ray tubes.

[@timovandrey]

@David Yxlon, possibly? I was always interested in their field of expertise, lol

[@Slurkz]

Amazing video, thanks! 💜 Growing up as a geeky kid in the Netherlands in the 70’s, the magic innovation of Philips was everywhere and extremely inspiring to me. But very soon it became clear something was off when uncles and neighbors who happened to be engineers at Philips shared their deep and growing frustrations with their employer. Devastating mismanagement. Such a shame. 😢

[@carlob517]

Only ever owned one Phillips product a radio it didnt last at all , Phillips were also into Traffic Signalling Systems which has been sold onto Tyco Plessey Asia pty Ltd here in Australia , friends brother inlaw worked for them we used to stir him up about how inefficient they were holding up traffic for right turners that weren't there for example , or stopping cars for no reason at all , Traffic Lights definitely need to be updated maybe by AI as they waste people time often for no reason

[@richardansell6551]

We used to take customers or prospects to visit the Eindhoven sound theatre, they always came out stunned.

[@ogorekkiszony7236]

Philips did indeed make good products. My tv was made by Philips back in 1984 and with no servicing, only an occasional external cleaning, it still works perfectly and I still enjoy watching tv on it.

[@X001W19]

A 1984 TV, antique product, amazing

[@kingkobra1956]

I had a Philips TV that refused to die. I bought it for $350.00 at a pawn shop and it was less than a year old. I had it for 10 years until I decided to upgrade. I was waiting for it to die before purchasing a new one but it refused to die and was totally still trouble free. I liked Philips products and wondered what happened to them. Poor management destroys companies and that's what happened to Philips.

[@X001W19]

Eventually any good company will go bad, because they hire lots of "smart" people who has nothing to do, and they will try to "renovate" and destroy the perfect products. Example, Mercedes and BMW now add lots of useless features to their cars making them less reliable and expensive.

[@himadrijoshi]

This. I swear by my Philips blenders and hair dryers ( the older one is from 2009 and still works flawlessly)

[@ogorekkiszony7236]

@@himadrijoshi my grandmother uses a Philips hairdryer from 1995, still works great.

[@AaronMartinColby]

I used to work at GE and it is amazing the amount of overlap in the two stories.

[@bighands69]

That is what happens when governments get involved in industry. Everything changes focus to regulations rather than innovation. Most innovations today are nothing more than marketing based around government regulations. A prime example of that would be automobiles.

[@Shadowfax-1980]

@@bighands69 the government didn’t tell companies like GE to get into the loan business or tell Boeing to start cutting corners. There are plenty of ways to blame government over regulation, but lots of companies get into trouble all on their own.

[@paleghost]

How about RCA, Westinghouse, Xerox, DEC, Magnavox, DuPont, MaBell

[@mattmanslim]

I’ve always felt GE and Philips were separated at birth

[@BillW50]

@@paleghost Philips owned Magnavox. During WWII, Philips Eindhoven separated from North American Philips. Not knowing who would win the war, they figured one would survive. Well they both did. North American Philips bought out companies like Norelco and Magnavox (and dozens more) early on while being separated. North American Philips kept the other brand names and didn't put the Philips branding on them. My business cards from the 80's still said North American Philips on them. I can't tell you exactly when they officially merged back together, since bits and pieces were merged pieces at a time. When I worked from North American Philips, our division's research and development usually came from Philips Eindhoven. But my division this was always the case since WWII. But I remember the plan was to phase out brands like Norelco and Magnavox and to replace them with Philips. And in the late 80's you started to see Philips Norelco and Philips Magnavox. This continued into the 90's and then everything just said Philips by itself. In Europe, it was always branded as Philips.

[@kailiu6105]

I worked for Philips Semiconductors, and I knew the story behind TSMC and ASML. When Philips spinned off its semicon division, we engineers felt horrible. Fortunately, NXP keeps growing anyway.

[@boblordylordyhowie]

In 1978 I worked for Comet in Scotland, we even had a Philips factory on our doorstep. One of the product we sold was Philips music systems but they didn't sell well in the hifi market because they didn't use standard values and wouldn't connect to other manufacturers systems as most hifi did. Move forward 20 years and I am doing MRI installations in Germany. We would build the special room for the MRI and at one hospital where we were doing an installation for a Philips MRI but walked off the job when Philips engineers insisted we complete the room BEFORE they put the MRI in. We tried to explain it even taking a cardboard box and sealing it then asking them how they were going to get the MRI in, it didn't work, so, we called our company and went to another job. TWO WEEKS later we got a call that they were ready for us and would install the MRI, we told them we were busy, they'd have to wait. So, Philips going down is not a great surprise, I'm just amazed they lasted this long.

[@foxdavion6865]

My grandfather was Dutch and I remember my grandparents used to have a home entertainment system which was entirely made up of a combination of Philips and Sony equipment, they also bought exclusively Philips lightbulbs right up till suddenly the quality dropped after 2000, so they stopped; I remember my grandfather lamenting about it. I personally was upset they exited the market because I always felt their low scale stuff, such as radios, power supplies, lightbulbs etc used to be superior to all the other brands. Cool fact: In Hearts of Iron 4 if you play as Netherlands, under company research and production selection page on the government tab, Phillips is listed for electronics and radar research speed increase.

[@MaJuV]

Philips is one of those fallen giants. It used to be huge here in Belgium. It had several factories and anybody who worked at a high tech company HAD to work at Philips... at least that was the story while I was a kid and young teen. But since the 2000s, I only heard about those many, MANY, rounds of layoffs every few years. And every company I've worked for (even today) has people who used to work at Phillips but were fired during one of those rounds of layoffs. And most of those said the same thing: great colleagues, great working environment, but not a single good word of the upper management. The people who worked at the Philips TV factory in Bruges probably had it the worst. Well over a decade of cyclical layoffs, then the change to TP Vision, the Chinese TPV taking over, stripping the factory and eventully closing it in 2014. Then taking only a few hundred to a shell R&D department in Zwijnaarde... only to once again strip it down to 60 employees a few years later. That's barely anything from the 2250 original employees. It's been a while since they've been in the news... wouldn't be surprised if those last few dozen will get the axe sooner or later. *sigh*

[@TheGreatBritishFarm]

Very sad and relatable to decline of industry here in the UK. Our house and my grandparents house both had big Belgian made Philips CRTs as main TVs up until 10 years ago.

[@Embargoman]

One thing for sure they need to Acquire Daewoo Electronics long time ago, as to what has happened to Daewoo Conglomerate has split, yet to add another facility in South Korea as to say their are TVs made by Philips in South Korea exported also under a different name sometimes under Portland. It will be the focus on Philips doing something right for instance acquiring Whirlpool and also acquiring Daewoo Electronics to become Philips Korea as GM took over Daewoo’s automotive arm and Philips to take on Daewoo’s electronic arm probably making some Daewoo branded TVs in Belgium after Daewoo’s bankruptcy at the time like what Magnavox in the US that came out with Philips/Magnavox.

[@zigzagtoes]

We had a phillips "flat screen" crt from early 90s. It only died a few yrs ago when it lept, with helping hand of someone with a temper, from a 12th floor balcony 😔 Still have my 14" crt frim same period, still works, but only used sometimes for original video gaming computers/consoles i own.

[@chowderwhillis9448]

@@Embargoman say Daewoo one more time...

[@chowderwhillis9448]

@@zigzagtoes who tf threw a Phillips Magnavox out a 12 story window?? and wtf is it doing up 12 stories anyhow?? wtf?? that could've smashed someone like a cartoon character if you weren't careful...

[@ZAGIDI]

Well presented and I’m am a new subscriber from New York 👍🏿

[@qaziaijaz7863]

I am working with Philips from 2008 in audios ,shavers ,appliances as well as lightings I saw all these change in my tenure

[@peterw4338]

The quickest way to fail a company is to put an accountant in charge

[@danvolodar]

Solving extremely complex technical problems only to fail to sell them doesn't sound like a problem an accountant in charge is likely to produce, tbh.

[@peterzimmerman1114]

The Accountant will euthanize the company in a "humane manner" and slowly dismantle it while paying out dividends.

[@peterw4338]

@@peterzimmerman1114 Well said. This happened to a few companies I contracted with.

[@peterzimmerman1114]

@@peterw4338 They have their place and skills, managing resources, making ends meet, but they arn't visionaries that create value unless they got that extra skill for it, some people are multifaceted. At the same time many companies have gone under because they are completely run by visionaries that can't manage resources. That's why successfull businesses needs either a an incredible individual to drive them forward or a group of people with complementing skillsets that work well together, It's usually the idea of a board to have people with different experiences to provide feedback. I'm the accountant kind, but I also realize that you need to keep the ship moving and competitive, not just afloat, for that you need to keepup. It helps if you know when you need to get feedback and knowing where to look for it. The worst would be those that are like Mao Zedong, normally they don't make it into a business and their reputation tends to get their career shot after a while, but if they do it's doomed.

[@danvolodar]

@@peterzimmerman1114 sure, point is, "let's invest into cool tech now and then look for ways to sell it later" is an approach engineers rather than accountants are prone to take.

[@CoasterVerox]

My grandpa worked at Philips and invented things like the machine to make flat computer cables. I'll never stop having respect for him, even if it already has been 8 years since his passing. 🌹

[@littleflower9425]

RIP

[@Leon_052]

R.I.P.

[@jamescagney2713]

They call them ribbon cables but lets remember, it was a process that is only overheating a cable harness... not rocket science to a low level student.

[@DrLoverLover]

Why would you stop having respect for people when they pass?

[@sudhakarg8921]

​@@jamescagney2713 I have 27 patents. Remember, as you go deep, you can innovate just about anything under the sun. Did you see his work to be little him? The possibility to better is there even today.

[@AMLCOrey]

Well made video. In the late 19802 till early 1990s, my dad (born 1954) worked for Philips in Hamburg, Germany. He was a CISA certified IT specialist. First from around 1987 to 1990 in the IT Department, which at the time was a new and a rather pioneering thing, then from 1990 to about 1995 in the Internal Audit department. He spoke briefly (confidentiality code) about the internal issues that the company ghas had back in the day and I got it they suffered from a heavy internal corruption back then already. Philips decided to sell their IT department in the mid-1990s to a durch IT consultancy firm, called ATOS Origin, who also kind of head-hunted my dad. The downfall of Philips is purely caused by bad senior managmeent.

[@anneg5720]

I bought a philips tv 14 years ago and it still works to this day.

[@Sakthivel2542]

I used Philips emergency Flashlight, DVD player And Many Philips Light bulbs For years They're great.

[@Sakthivel2542]

Now i bought myself a Philips Trimmer also

[@clydesider123]

My late dad worked for years in the bulbs department in Hamilton Scotland. He eventually became Departmental head and visited Eindhoven several times. He always said they were a good employer who looked after their employees. Sad to hear how times have changed.

[@Tony_bobo]

well Philips still takes good care of its employee until those business was sold or failed....

[@IanWilson-es4wi]

Maybe they were a good employer who looked after their employees, but not in Hamilton any more. Apparently they'll be looking after them in Poland now, which is apparently where that factory was moved to, cos it's more profitable there. They did a Dyson - the much-lauded British inventor/businessman who eventually realised that business was the important bit and relocated his factories to Indonesia. Lower wage-bill, taxes, and I'm guessing, far less concern for health and safety. Never mind all the people who had jobs here.

[@ncmartinez_his]

Many years ago I managed a project at Philips Semiconductor in San Jose, CA. The management of the facility and the operations was SO dysfunctional since it required the local management team to pass every decision through management in the Netherlands. I was with IBM at the time and it was apparent to our management that this client was going to be a loss after we returned and gave a report of the issues present at the site.

[@ferminromero2602]

Listened to this video on my 2004 Philips mini stereo system which is connected to my computer. Good documentary. Thanks for posting this.

[@RM-ti8nf]

We had a Phillips tv in the 60s or70s in NZ. I currently have a wee Phillips mini system from 20 yrs ago, still going well. It was a very reliable brand!

[@hughessay1372]

Great information! Sadly, I'm sure the top management at Phillips was always well compensated for their incompetence...

[@bertplank8011]

Exactly

[@rayderrich]

As a Dutchman I find it hard to like this video, but it is what it is, and your overview of Philips was very well done. Nothing we can do about their history.

[@Booz2010]

Indoensiyans: Meneer, please hold our BAJIGUR 🥃

[@BenjaminMilekowsky]

​@@Booz2010 apa hubungannya philips dengsn indonesia ?

[@jeff4362]

I went to Netherlands recently and still saw many Philips TV's in people's homes and in hotels. Was interesting.

[@rayderrich]

@@jeff4362 Well they had glory years for sure, now most of what I see is ads for their shaving devices. Kind of a decline after their (almost) big hits.

[@alexandersardi4479]

For me and my family Phillips always a household appliances, and i always love their rice cooker, it's so easy to use and clean also i never doubt it's durability. Same goes with the lamp and other kitchen appliances

[@landsman737]

great video, thanks for it man

[@paolocanali3361]

Before the semiconductor era, in 1926, Philips also developed and brought to the market the first major innovation in vacuum tube technology: the five electrodes vacuum tube, called pentode, enabled a huge step forward on early electronic devices capabilities and made Philips one of the biggest and most successful vacuum tube manufacturers in the world. Philips advanced vacuum tube technology, such as the EF50 tube, was a key contribution to RADAR developements during WW2.

[@tocaat2410]

Something to do with Bernard Tellegen, wasn't it?

[@Bartman4800]

In the early 2000's I finished working for the design department of ASML (through a contractor), and did a 6 month contract at Philips in the S-complex, designing parts for the First 2 stage wafer stepper. The old arrogance at Philips was still present; for instance they thought they could use their ERP system of choice (Baan) where they were eventually obliged to use ASML's (SAP). Philips still thought they were the king of the hill in Eindhoven, while across the road in Veldhoven things were progressing much faster. ASML did not need Philips for knowledge, but just lacked manpower. Autonomy as a design engineer was so much better at ASML, Philips was still stuck in the 80's. Someone joked that the fencing around the S-complex was facing inwards, as to keep employees in, not keep the nasties out 😄. At Philips they always keep a boundary between (HTS/Hochschule) Polytechnical educated Engineers and (TU/Universitat) University educated engineers. Maybe a strange concept to most foreigners, but Netherlands and Germany have Engineering at an applied level and at an R&D level. The University Engineers and Physicists had their own canteen, as if they did not want to mingle with the lower mortals. ASML had none of that stuff. There was great collaboration between the levels. I learned a lot talking to the Physicists about the theory behind some of the decisions, but alternatively the HTS engineers were usually the ones to come with a solution for a problem that could be manufactured. I loved the interaction on many levels and only left because my own contractor was pissing me off no-time. Philips offered me a permanent job after I was there for 3 months. They got really antsy when I declined. It was just not a very nice place to work...

[@Nettlebed7]

You probably mean 'physicists', not medical doctors.

[@Bartman4800]

@@Nettlebed7 changed, thanks for the input

[@halian9256]

In the late 1990s I moved to a new home and there happened to be a Philips factory sale. I bought a large number of Philips home appliances. Imagine my shock when exactly 3 years later, each and every one of these appliances broke down. Planned obsolescence - as you cite near the beginning of the video, is the reason Philips products are BANNED in my household for the last 20+ years.

[@NjonjoNdehi]

Their spinoff Advanced Semiconductor Materials Lithography (ASML) is fabulously successful, especially their EUV (extreme ultra violet) fabrication equipment. 👍🏽

[@Ascendion]

When talking about innovation you could have mentioned that 'SPDIF' is 'Sony/Phillips Digital Interface'. It was probably the first fiber-optic data link in home electronics and was popular before HDMI took over.

[@nalesnikwiciu]

SPDIF is the ONLY consumer fiber interface/connector :c

[@Robinthefox88]

​@@nalesnikwiciu it isn't, there's also Toslink

[@BavarianM]

@@Robinthefox88 toslink is spidif…

[@Robinthefox88]

@@BavarianM Yeah, you're right, I always thought of them as separate things, partly because spdif was Sony/Philips Digital Interface, and Toslink is Toshiba Link, so in my head they were separate. I guess also that for me Toslink was always the fibre optic connector, spdif was the coax one. I stand corrected 😅

[@SoraKoi23]

My father used to tell me stories of my grandfather's time working for Philips in Eindhoven back around the 50'-80's. Philips was run very informally back then, at least in practice. Iirc he often paid (and was paid) for favors from other divisions with cigars, which were paid for by the company, and he managed to convince someone to let him take home the sheets where prints had already been cut out which he then reclaimed tiny amounts of gold from till he was able to forge a few rings for his kids. And my father also tells me how that those times ended when for-profit-management was installed. Nowadays ASML seems to have become the shining jewel and much of the lifeblood of the city. A fair chunk of my friends work there. Still, you can see it's legacy all the way into our football team PSV.

[@babajikathullu311]

I used to repair mobiles 10 years back and used to to find Philips parts in Samsung/Nokia mobile mostly in nokia phones.

[@HoLDoN4Sec]

i think you have a small mistake around Phillips coffee machines division. Phillips bought Saeco (which also owns Gaggia) in 2009, and in 2017 they sold Philips and Saeco's industrial Coffee machines division (Coffee Machines for coffee shops) to Necta and Wittenberg. Phillips is said to still own Saeco's and their own domestic coffee machine divisions (they make a shit ton of money just from selling their aquaclean filters alone, let alone the rest of their domestic machines maintenance resupplies, and of course their machines which are probably the best or 2nd best brands in the domestic automatic coffee machine market - they own Saeco, Philips Coffee and Gaggia after all...)

[@YassineSaidi]

I've worked internships at the NXP facility where they invented the NFC technology, they have a really great innovation culture and spinning it off ended up a good success.

[@dsnodgrass4843]

There are a lot of parallels here to the American company General Electric; another huge "Everything Inc." that's faded down to a shadow of its former self. To be brief about it, the 1980s brought about the lust for "financialization" among large Western manufacturers, driven by pressure from wealthy "activist" stock investors. The Carl Icahns of the business world. Their games with equity drove the rush to globalize production to low-cost Asia; and to convert innovations into debt-service cash way too prematurely. The investors' goals were to turn these corporations into "banks" from manufacturers, with all the "cash cow"/ATM advantages (to only them) that implies. That's the *real* "Story Behind" declines like these.

[@jmg8246]

What's your logic? It's all about inventions, without inventions all these companies will go the way of dodo birds... Apple is doing just fine with low-cost Asian production.

[@EhEhEhEINSTEIN]

Tbf to GE, they did like $75b in revenue last year vs like $15b for Philips

[@dsnodgrass4843]

@@EhEhEhEINSTEIN GE was bigger, and they accomplished more "financialization" than most, earlier.

[@dsnodgrass4843]

@@jmg8246 it's history, bro. You're talking in basic terms about how something "should" be; I talked about what actually happened. Private equity is the lamprey that grew larger than the whale it was sucking blood from. That's why thieves like Bob Mercer are richer than God, and formerly productive "light bulb" companies like Philips and Sylvania are empty brands.

[@tylerclayton6081]

@@dsnodgrass4843 It worked out well for most American companies. The US currently has like 32 of the top 50 largest companies and most of the top ten. GE was an exception. Most other major companies didn’t decline like that. And GE is still a pretty huge company. They probably make the best jet engines besides pratt & whitney. GE is one of only several companies around the world capable of making advanced jet engines

[@santosmurilo]

Amazing documentary! +1 subscriber!

[@nuy6n6nn]

Man, Phillips is a YTP making machine. Seeing it die would be sad

[@buckwylde7965]

Pretty much the same thing happened to Hewlett Packard. HP has been split up many times since 1999 and now exists only as a name. It once was one of the best companies to work for.

[@HansOvervoorde]

So sad, HP was such a trusted name in the medical field and in the field of computer servers, among other fields.

[@alanmusicman3385]

from the late 1990s onward it was the printers business that really kept HP at the top level - people used to say that it was a company that was only still sailing because it was floating along on the proceeds from a sea of coloured water!

[@buckwylde7965]

@@alanmusicman3385 Yep, I worked 11 years at HP's printer plant in Vancouver, WA, best job I ever had. We made 25% of the corporate's profit worldwide for years, huge profits margins that just keep going. We made printers 24/7 but one day the world was full of printers, I had two at home, and the prices impleaded, along with our organization. I got the last of the warm and fuzzy out of HP with 2 years salary and two years fully paid education by leaving. It was super as long as it lasted.

[@buckwylde7965]

@@HansOvervoorde I worked at the HP printer factory in Vancouver Washington for 11 years, best job of my life. Companies are like people, they are conceived, they grow ans mature and then decline and die. Some last centuries, some last only a few years.

[@golden.lights.twinkle2329]

I used to work for Univac.

[@everyhandletaken]

Philips products from back in the day were just brilliant. I certainly wish we still had more of that level of quality in this era.

[@CURTlS]

But they literally invented planned obsolescence

[@bellissimo4520]

Funnily, I remember very well that back in the 80's I always loved certain products from them, but the actual build quality was almost always inferior to that of Japanese companys like Sony. For instance, Philips monitors used to be great in terms of picture quality, features etc.; but any mechanical part that they had, like a cover for the front controls, would almost inevitably break after a few years.

[@Mimeniia]

I find that compared to today's trash they still give you bang for your buck.

[@patrickfarnburn5704]

There where many bad products, nearly every product with mechanics inside gives soon or late problems, like taperecorders for example. Radio's and measuring equipment were of good quality.

[@6581punk]

I bought a Phillips LCD TV in about 2015 and replaced it in 2017. It had a terrible user interface, awful colour balance that I could never get tuned in right. Then lines started to appear across the panel and I replaced it with an LG (I'd had an LG before it) it's so much better.

[@sakshamjain4286]

Now i see why there is so much advertisement for philips trimmer and not its other products