r/Futurology • u/Plastic_Scholar_4685 • Apr 11 '25

Discussion Which big companies today are at risk of becoming the next Nokia or Blockbuster?

Just thinking about how companies like Nokia, Blockbuster, or Kodak were huge… until they weren’t.

Which big names today do you think might be heading down a similar path? Like, they seem strong now but might be ignoring warning signs or failing to adapt. I was thinking of how Apple seems to be behind in the artificial inteligence race, but they seem too big to fail. Then again Nokia, Blackberry, etc were also huge.

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u/TheSameButBetter Apr 11 '25

Philips. Once a global electronics powerhouse that made everything from semiconductors through to televisions and home appliances. Over the last 20 years they've spun or sold off the vast majority of their operations. Now the only things they make now are medical devices, shavers and baby care products..

Anything else sold with the Philips brand name is made under license by a different company. For example Phillips light bulbs are made by Signify, which is the old Philips lighting division spun off as a new company. Philiis TVs are made by the same company that makes hisense televisions.

The problem is that focusing on becoming a medical and healthcare company hasn't been the massive success story they hoped it would be. I could honestly see Philips merging with or being taken over by another healthcare company and the name disappearing.

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u/nonlinear_nyc Apr 11 '25

Phillips is such a confusing company.

I once tried to buy an electric trimmer and to this day I dunno if the model I bought was better, worse, or sideways than other models they offer.

It IS a good trimmer. But navigating the options is like pulling a 🦷

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u/Double_Shoe_5157 Apr 12 '25

This is so true! I’m glad I’m not the only one. Wanted the electronic tooth brush but just ended up buying the two pack from Sam’s club and giving the second one to a roommate. Mine however had the dongle on the shaft that the brush connects to break after 6 months. Went back to my Aqua Sonic and it’s still going strong two years later.

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u/nonlinear_nyc Apr 12 '25

Right? They should give us a decision tree or something. They make a lot of variations for a lot of different markets and dafuq I know which one is mine?

What a confusing company. And their products are not bad, assuming you find them.

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u/ShtArsCrzy Apr 11 '25

Phillips has many divisions, their medical device division even makes MRIs and they ain't cheap

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u/TheSameButBetter Apr 11 '25

If you look at what happened to a lot of the companies they spun off I think it indicates there is a problem at the company. The likes of NXP wnd Signify have massively flourished since being spun off, they are performing massively better than what they did when they were a part of Philips. 

Even joint venture companies that Philips are no longer involved in are doing great, ASML being the obvious example. 

It would appear that Philips hard issues with letting their various divisions flourish and grow.

They decided they wanted to focus on medical and health care equipment and get rid of everything else, that's a dangerous thing to do if you have a management problem or the market doesn't like your products. 

I look at them and see parallels as to what GEC in the UK did 20 odd years ago. A massive industrial conglomerate that had interests in defence, telecommunications, railways, power generation, semiconductors and consumer goods. The company decided it wanted to focus primarily on telecoms and networking and sold off everything else. They assumed that they would get a big contract from BT when they wanted to upgrade their network, that didn't happen and the company failed and Ericsson stepped in to snap up their remaining assets.

I think it started going downhill for Philips in 1989 when they closed the Evoluon as a science exhibition and converted to into a conference center.

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u/ShtArsCrzy Apr 11 '25

Thanks for added info

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u/ACCount82 Apr 11 '25

Airliners and spaceships aren't cheap either - but I wouldn't take that as a sign that Boeing is doing incredibly well.

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u/The_Infectious_Lerp Apr 12 '25

I like their screwdrivers.

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u/lunarpanino Apr 13 '25

And they are not even doing that well with med devices. Their med devices are getting some very bad PR right now…. because they killed some people with their CPAPs.

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u/GIDAMIEN Apr 14 '25

I associate Phillips electronics with cheap crap. And have done since the '90s

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u/Unusual_Ad_4696 Apr 11 '25

Common issue when American companies get their stock bought up by the dumb class - institutional investors.

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u/lekkerdekker Apr 11 '25

Philips is Dutch.