High Definition Television - The 21st Century Non-Starter

In late 2005, my ex-wife was laid off by her employer ... the Matsushita-Kotobuki behemoth. They manufacture many of the electronic hot-sellers that grace store shelves. From televisions to DVD players, they manufacture it all - placing on them, at the last moment of production, unique labels to signify the brand under which they'll be sold. If you ever wondered why Panasonic electronic equipment looks so much like Radio Shack equipment (and equipment sold under several other brand names), that's why - because they're all manufactured by the same people - Matsushita-Kotobuki.

The good news was that the layoff was temporary. The industry had given Matsushita-Kotobuki a mandate. High definition television would be the wave of the future. So, the manufacturing plant in Vancouver, Washington was closed to retool. No longer would they produce standard definition equipment. Everything would be high-definition from that point on, relegating standard-definition to lesser manufacturers. They were absolutely convinced that these lesser manufacturers would be left in the backwater as MK surged ahead of the pack with future technology that everybody wanted.

But then, a funny thing happened.

In early March 2006, my ex-wife went to work as usual. She and her co-workers were in for a big and unpleasant surprise. Her entire plant was closed. Everyone was laid off ... except for a select group of temps kept on to complete existing (paid-for) orders. And this time, the layoffs were permanent. Why? It wasn't quality related because everything their plant turned out was state-of-the-art. And it wasn't a move by the company to ship these jobs overseas. Simply put, unsold high definition equipment was being returned to them en-masse. No one was buying them.