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0 pointstveita12y ago0 comments

> the TV/Monitor market is price colluded to hell.

How do you figure? TVs are cheaper and bigger than ever - they're practically giving them away.

My understanding was that producers are pumping gimmicks like 3d and huge curved screens because there are absolutely no margins left in the commodity TV/monitor market.

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anon138512y ago

Well there was that whole thing where the biggest companies in the industry plead guilty to a massive price fixing conspiracy over many years and paid hundreds of millions of dollars in fines…

http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2008/November/08-at-1002.html

mikeash12y ago

Nah, I'm sure ten square feet of delicate electronics crammed with millions of transistors costs pennies to manufacture....

anon138512y ago

This seems to be a post implying that price fixing in the electronics industry is unthinkable because electronics are complex to manufacture.

The actual history of the industry would indicate that price fixing is common: the LCD[1], RAM[2], optical drives[3][4], GPU[5] and CPU[6] markets have all faced massive scandals involving price fixing or other anti competitive collusion, often resulting in huge fines.

[1] http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aP1P0...

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DRAM_price_fixing

[3] http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9243591/HP_sues_seven...

[4] http://www.pcworld.com/article/240937/hitachilg_data_storage...

[5] http://www.engadget.com/2008/09/28/nvidia-details-settlement...

[6] http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/14/business/global/14compete....

mikeash12y ago

I'm really just trying to imply that price fixing in the TV industry seems unlikely because TVs are unbelievably cheap compared to what I know (admittedly, little) of the cost to manufacture them.

Price fixing in electronics seems entirely possible, and I don't doubt that it happens. But if it was happening in the world of TVs, surely TVs would cost more than they do now.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

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anon138512y ago

Well there was that whole thing where the biggest companies in the industry plead guilty to a massive price fixing conspiracy over many years and paid hundreds of millions of dollars in fines…

http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2008/November/08-at-1002.html

mikeash12y ago

Nah, I'm sure ten square feet of delicate electronics crammed with millions of transistors costs pennies to manufacture....

anon138512y ago

This seems to be a post implying that price fixing in the electronics industry is unthinkable because electronics are complex to manufacture.

[1] http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aP1P0...

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DRAM_price_fixing

[3] http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9243591/HP_sues_seven...

[4] http://www.pcworld.com/article/240937/hitachilg_data_storage...

[5] http://www.engadget.com/2008/09/28/nvidia-details-settlement...

[6] http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/14/business/global/14compete....

mikeash12y ago

I'm really just trying to imply that price fixing in the TV industry seems unlikely because TVs are unbelievably cheap compared to what I know (admittedly, little) of the cost to manufacture them.

Price fixing in electronics seems entirely possible, and I don't doubt that it happens. But if it was happening in the world of TVs, surely TVs would cost more than they do now.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse