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Apple Affected by LCD Price Fixing by LG, Sharp, Chunghwa
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Unless you can design/program/manufacture/market a MP3 player better than the ipod i wouldn't say Apple are ripping off its customers...as far as am aware Apple cannot actually force people to buy ipods over other MP3 players!
So if all computer makers decide to price fix laptops, and make them start at $5000, and all towers start at $4000, you think that's OK? That wouldn't affect you negatively at all?
How about Cable and satellite providers deciding that all TV will cost $100/month or more? Who do you go to for a cheaper price? Over the air antennas?
how about cell phones? The cheapest contract you can get from any of the big providers is now pretty much $40 across the board (not counting the BS pay as you go plans).
When businesses do whatever they want with no regulation, you invariably get abuses of capitalism that result in problems for everybody. Hence our little economic crises. Companies rake in record profits for a while, and then they finally crest over what people can realistically pay for a service or product - it results people just giving up. Everyone stops buying and nobody can sell anything.
In other words, the economy grinds to a halt.
But you're right. Let companies do what they want, they have our best interests at heart, and not their profit margins, right?
Probably not, they will probably raise their prices now to cover for what they lost in the fine.
Yeah, we bought it and knew the price. Even if we knew we were paying more than we should, it is the best mp3 player!
I found that kind of surprising as well, cheaper LCDs couldn't be a bad thing right?
Woo hoo !!!
$585 billion? Alright, so only $115 billion left to go before the bailout is all paid for. Thank you price fixers. So that takes the taxpayers mostly off the hook right?
Man there's got to be some other industry to investigate and fine.
$585 billion? Alright, so only $115 billion left to go before the bailout is all paid for. Thank you price fixers. So that takes the taxpayers mostly off the hook right?
Man there's got to be some other industry to investigate and fine.
Do you have any idea how economics works?
Have you ever tried, and succeeded on putting your colleagues out of their jobs?
Do you think it is that easy?
They will try to compete for marketshare, but so does EVERYONE. Yet there are a LOT of companies still in the market...
IF you are efficient at doing your work, and your competitor is efficient at doing theirs, you might be able to make slight changes to add value or cut price, to compete. But you can't just give away your products while hoping that enough people flock to you to instantly put your competitor out of business. Even if that were to work, when you jack your prices sky high to recover your losses, and pay your debts, you will LOSE sales, and probably drive yourself out of business, too.
It is a bit of a tit-for-tat game, but companies don't just put each other out of business because they want to. Otherwise there would only be one corporation in existence, that does everything, and does it BADLY.
It did not hurt Apple because Apple only bought the higher price screen for a one year period and then only for the iPod. iPod screens are only a few bucks each. We are not talking about a lot of money here, not in Apple's case.
LCDs seem cheap to me, so if they were price fixing, they were probably doing it wrong. Someone should take a look at the wireless companies instead.
Tell me about it!
http://www.verizonwireless.com:80/b...ion=priceSort&typeId=1&subTypeId=19&catId=323
http://www.wireless.att.com/cell-ph...vidual-cell-phone-plans.jsp?_requestid=245625
Looks pretty similar to me!
Uh, why do I have the feeling that if they did fix their prices, it would only be the difference of, what, 2 bucks a display? Would still affect companies like Apple in bulk, but there's no way that now anyone's going to be offering displays for cheaper.
It makes me wonder how much the price fixing actually changed the price? For example, were they adding 5% to the price of the display? 10%? Obviously they have to make a profit, but...
This would mean that all those years I've been paying a "premium" for S-IPS panels has all been due to price fixing?!
Price fixing isn't illegal; it's cheating consumers and fraud that is.
Price fixing isn't illegal; it's cheating consumers and fraud that is.
Yes, businesses are free to set whatever prices they want. But when they collude to fix prices with each other, it kills competition and the free market. It is and should continue to be illegal.
Maybe Sharp will offer discounts on a new Macbook / Mackbook Pro to those they helped rip off.
OK, it's a dream, but ...
We're talking about a company who charges premium prices for displays with panels that haven't been made in a couple years. Apple's smart enough to know they can use the almost blind loyalty of some of its customers exhibit to make a lot of money.
You absolutely won't see anything at all. Zero. This wasn't a class action suit. No gift certificates, no rebates, nothing. The fine is levied by the US government. You still get the proportional benefit of the money, but no input as to how it's spent.So, LG, Chunghwa and Sharp pay to the big Kitty, and then we get scraps, right? $5 of free iTunes downloads or a replacement iPod for the overpriced one that I gave to my brother. Pretty certain "we won't see JACK"...
This already happened. There is no future fallout of this price fixing, which was deemed to have been resolved in 2006. The drop in prices two years ago was partially attributed to this. Prices have already come down, and anything that happens this holiday season is a result of improved efficiency, new technology, economic pressure, or marketing strategy.
These companies were not prosecuted for fraud.
No. What you're describing is the justification for why none of the proceeds of the case go back to consumers--because they voluntarily parted with their money for the affected products. It certainly is no fake crime, however.
Setting prices, even all at the same level, through normal, open, competitive methods is perfectly fine. A company can price its products at whatever it chooses. It cannot, however, enter into an agreement with others to do the same in order to cause damage to competitors not part of the agreement, because this is an unlawful consolidation of market power.
That's more or less how it works. An outright jump in prices, or significant premium over the non-participating baselone, is uncommon. But when you're working as an industry supplier to firms that buy in the tens of thousands of units per order on very low-margin units (LCD panels), an extra two or three dollars per unit has a comparatively large impact on profits or costs, depending on which side you're looking from.
No. S-IPS panels are more expensive because they're actually more expensive. As I recall, the price fixing was in the lower end of the market in TN and MVA panels.This would mean that all those years I've been paying a "premium" for S-IPS panels has all been due to price fixing?!
There are no savings to pass on. LCD prices are no longer affected by the scheme in question.
It's not rumors, it's what Apple says in it's SEC filings. Most products have a gross margin of 30% or higher. The "gross margin" of a product is the difference between what you pay, and what it costs Apple to sell that one item to you, that is parts, production, transport, sales, warranties, replacing broken items and so on. It doesn't take into account any cost that Apple had whether you were buying the product or not. For example product development, advertising, all the cost that Apple had whether you bought their product or not.
The "bill of materials" is something completely different. That is what you would have to pay if you bought all the parts that make up say an iMac and throw them all on a big pile. It is a very meaningless number.