How I Did It: William Wang, CEO, Vizio (2007) | Hacker News Reader

How I Did It: William Wang, CEO, Vizio (2007)

inc.com

26 pointswh-uws7 comments

I read an article a few years ago with the legitimate television manufacturers predicting this exact situation... Visio was using really cheap compoments (like knock off capacitors) and taking whatever shortcuts they could. They predicted that these components would have a very short life, resulting in dead tv's after only a couple years.

After reading that (and having experience doing my own motherboard mods), I knew to stay the hell away from their products. So I spent $75 more. TV's are NOT something that should be dispensable- they should last as long as possible. They are environmentally invasive and the resources they exploit are too precious to just throw away.

I own a Vizio HDTV, and I have to say, they're doing a great job at making high end products into commodities. A few years ago we would say the same thing about Hyundai, KIA, and other car manufacturers but today? There's more of them out on the road than ever before, and they stay on the road longer than before. I think we're in a cycle wherein we all want the features, quality, and technology of formerly luxury items for our every day, layman usage. Companies that drive this cycle will likely do better than those that attempt to hold the price line. Apple is perhaps the only exception to the rule (though, their prices have come down a little as well on the premium side), and that's due to the excellent used market.

What is interesting to read here are the comments below the story. The article is from 2007 and yet the comments (predominantly negative) keep going in. I don't personally have any knowledge of Vizio, but I'd certainly be wary after reading the comments!

I feel like people just have this need to pile on and add their negative review to things when they see other people doing it. Or maybe out of spite in a public place, just because they feel they have no other recourse and must warn others about their problems.

I own some Vizio products I'm perfectly happy with that have never had issues to date (TV, bluray player). Some of their products are hit-or-miss in terms of what you pay for, but all companies have that thing going on with products here and there and that's what product reviews are for. The one time I contacted support to figure out how to get wifi working on my bluray player because I couldn't find the settings, I felt like I had an average experience and my problem was solved. But overall, I really think that it's the value Vizio gives you that makes it worthwhile. Their products are never exceptional in any other way.

I bought a Samsung LED HDTV a few months ago that was reasonably priced and looked nice, but has some "features" that annoy me to no end to the point that I almost feel ripped off because my TV was advertised as being able to do something and I really didn't consider it functional (especially those damn apps and the app "store"). Whenever I ran into a roadblock, I couldn't even find a support page (apparently my TV model was too new) and support was very unhelpful. I don't hate it enough to seek out venues to vent and I didn't hate it enough to return it (all TVs seem to have this problem to me), but I will bring it up should it ever come up in conversation anywhere. I bought this TV to replace a Sony plasma that stopped turning on, but it was out of warranty so I couldn't expect miracles there.

My Logitech Harmony remote and Apple TV are so awesome I have written gushing reviews and have recommended both to at least two dozen family members and friends during this past month. I will go out of my way to say a good word about these devices that I honestly don't think I can use a TV without.

I guess my point is, Vizio isn't really in the market to sell exceptional products, so people either remember it as 'oh, whatever' or have some real big gripe and typically the product will be out of warranty at that point or it was the user's fault and... basically, just take it with a grain of salt. If anyone was objecting to Vizio based on their trade and labor practices, fine, but a row of bad comments months after the story is published is lame :(

Careful not to sacrifice longevity with commoditization. The margins become so little, that short product lifetime becomes the comapny lifeline, the last way to increase sales. Eventually the service becomes too lousy and customers shy away. In some respect, this is happening with car industry. HP is also a good posterchild with it's printer cartridge scheme. Goldstar?

this is a GREAT article. Very inspirational. I won't spoil it.

Willy Wang

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