Amtran Tech Ltd. Analysis

AmTran Tech Ltd. Analysis

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Am Tran Technology Ltd.

This case study focuses on AmTra Technology Ltd. The company which manufactured Television sets, computer monitors and sold them under different brands such as Sony, apple. The Most talked about partnership was between AmTran and Vizio. This partnership tried to capture the low end market making discounted TV’s. As the technology of LCD came in the margin revenue decreased which forced AmTran to focus on partnership with Vizio which earned a market share of more than 21%, which was more than the leading brands. When the market was challenging and economical financial was down they sold more units but the revenues were low. During this time AmTran was offered a partnership by JVC Kenwood Holdings about licensing their JVC Brand to AmTran. Which would indirectly make AmTran compete with Vizio.

Sony Trinitron and Background on Analog Television

Television technology has gone through major changes over the years from analog to digital and in the way TV worked and in the way they received signals. Radio Corporation of America(RCA) started doing good business when color TV were mainstreamed and also made Cathode Ray Tubes for Zenith with which it competed in market. RCA made it patents available for USA companies for free and to increase profits to royal electronics in Netherlands and to leading Japanese companies.

Sony, decide to work on its technology and experimented with chromatron and developed Trinitron which was significant than RCA technology. Sony dominated the market and successfully sold produced millions of units per year.

The industry in the late 20th century was considered a vertical market as the products were manufactured and distributed designed all the hardware by a same company. As Sony too manufactured the parts to its specification needed and was able to achieve the performance it needed for the CRT.Until 1996 patent protected Sony’s technology, later other companies started innovating on Sony’s technology

After which Sony started producing flat front screen and still was a strong brand.

Flat Panels:Analog-Digital

Flat Panel television envisioned in early 1950s. which emerged from the use of it for calculators to its commercial application in laptop computers by companies like IBM, Sharp and Toshiba. This technology started being used in the PC market as the it was the primary application area.AS the technology developed and making bigger screens was feasible Sharp started the LCD use for TV and another use of plasma display panel started with IBM introducing them as a computer terminal which appeared in the mass markets from 2000s.

LCD panels were technically challenging to manufacture but companies wanted to invest in it as it seemed a strategic technology. Japan companies started this trend with Korean and Taiwanese firms entered as the panel size increased. Sony started manufacturing flat panels with Samsung as a S-LCD Corporation.

Trends in Receivers: Analog-Digital

Traditional TVs had many functional blocks to be designed and connected with many components this was earlier mastered by American companies at first and then Japanese firms.

Progress in semiconductor technology led to design to TV sets from a more complex job to connecting the right chips onto circuit boards. The recording technology also developed transforming from recording on magnetic tapes to compact disc where storage was in 0 and 1 and optical storage in DVD format which was a transformation for motion picture industry.

Transmission: Analog-Digital

The ATSC committee in the 1990s standardized digital HD TV. Direct TV was a pioneer in transmission technology without being constrained to analog TV system and deliver digital code video. Digital transmission made transmitting more channels easier.

Analog transmission was inefficient in using the radio spectrum. With the phase out of analog transmission in 2009.it made room for other wireless technologies to use the radio spectrum.

The evolution of TV from analog to digital left with no companies any proprietary control.

AmTran and the OEM/ODM Model

Alpha and Frank Wu founded MAG Technology, with presence in PC monitor market which also contracted for other companies’ and recognized Gateway computer as its OEM. The brothers left the company over disagreement on the company’s strategies.

The vision for AmTran was to produce color CRT displays for computers and television monitors. It started from being a research

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