
57
chapter four
Current issues in
reliability technology
Several years ago, a medium-sized company regarded as a rising star in
Korea declared bankruptcy. It had developed mobile phones and launched
them successfully in the domestic market. Due to heavy price competition
in China, its protability had deteriorated, so in the expectation of higher
prices, it opened up a new market in Europe.
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But there was also severe
price competition there, and the company released its product without
enough margin. This may have succeeded, but an inherent quality prob-
lem forced multitudes of product returns, which forced the business to
close, nally, with ...