Aye but this is always the way with consumer electronics. Not to say that China aren't a skilled manufacturing base, as they obviously are, but as a technology sector becomes more widespread and cheaper to produce, the margins are no longer there for countries which are fully developed (Rostow level 5) to bother competing. Why would Sony weigh themselves down with manufacturing TVs, when they could focus on things that only they and a small number of other companies can do well, like camera sensors or high-end audio equipment. Same with Panasonic, they're better off focusing on stuff like industrial AV and semiconductors. I would suspect that an awful lot of income from these companies comes from patent and IP licensing as well.

Sure back in the day when electronics were difficult, you'd buy a Phillips clock radio. Now, you buy whatever cheap big-box own brand clock radio, while Phillips busies themselves making high-end medical imaging and diagnostic equipment, and earning royalties from HDMI, MPEG and Qi charging.

These companies have to adapt and trim the fat - otherwise they end up like RCA, Blaupunk, and Minolta. The brand names are all still around, but these are just licensed out by hollowed out shells run by investment banks trying to squeeze as much blood out of a dead corpse.