Ask HN: "Philips" products not really made by Philips? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: "Philips" products not really made by Philips?

17 pointsprmph7 comments

Just took delivery of a new flat screen monitor that has Philips branding [1]. The quick start sheet that accompanied it had some weird English, so I took a look at the manual proper. On the back I see:

> This product has been manufactured by and is sold under the responsibility of Top Victory Investments Ltd., and Top Victory Investments Ltd. is the warrantor in relation to this product. Philips and Philips Shield Emblem are registered trademarks of Koninklijke Philips N.V. and are used under license.

Who are this Top Victory Investments Ltd company? Seems they are a Chinese company based in Shenzhen.

So I'm curious, and would like to hear from those with relevant experience. Is this basically a product that has Philips branding in name only, and is for all intents and purposes a Chinese product? or does Philips exercise sufficient control over production such that its quality befits the brand?

1. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07JXCR263

Philips sold all of their non healthcare-related businesses and brands years ago.

It's a particular tragedy in their case since they were an innovator and world leader in electronics for many years.

That's right. The TV part of their business was sold in 2011, feels like yesterday. There were a few rough years of really substandard products being released under the Philips name before they improved to match the rest of the industry. I'm not sure what they're currently like.

I would be really hesitant to trust a Philips healthcare product considering how poorly they managed the CPAP recall. They knew their users were breathing toxic gasses and in many cases visible foam particles. They knew it for years and just kept selling the machines.

They still did their shaving stuff until a couple of years ago.

``` TPV Technology Limited (informally TPV, Chinese: 冠捷科技) is a Fortune China 500 multinational electronics manufacturing company headquartered in Kwun Tong, Hong Kong, and incorporated in Bermuda. It is the world’s largest manufacturer of computer monitors with a 33% market share. TPV designs and produces a full range of CRT and TFT LCD monitors as well as LCD TVs for distribution globally. It owns brands such as AOC, Envision, and Philips for some products (TPV obtained the brand name of Philips from Koninklijke Philips N.V.). It is also an original design manufacturer for other companies ```

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TPV_Technology

Most/all of the legacy "name brand" companies sell their logo to third party manufacturers. For instance, GE does not make any of the consumer products that bear their logo.

To the two parts to your question:

a) Yes.

b) No. Your example of the weird English in the manual is witness to the fact that Philips does not care at all about the product, only the licensing fees they collect.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WE58YisgFeQ

Techalter did a good job describing the fate of a lot of Philips different businesses and product lines.

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