Zenith Electronics Corporation
| Zenith Electronics LLC
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| legal form | Limited Liability Company |
| founding | 1918 |
| Seat | Lincolnshire, Illinois |
| management | Michael Ahn, CEO |
| Number of employees | 976 (as of:?) |
| sales | US $ 444.7 million (as of 1999) |
| Branch | Consumer electronics |
| Website | www.zenith.com |
Zenith Electronics is an American manufacturer of consumer electronics . The company employs around 1000 people. The company is headquartered in Lincolnshire , Illinois .
history
The beginnings of the Zenith company go back to 1918 when the company's founder Eugene F. McDonald and a friend assembled radio equipment for radio amateurs in his kitchen in Chicago , Illinois . In the early 1920s, McDonald was selling radios under the name Z-Nith , which was derived from its amateur radio call sign 9ZN. In 1923 he finally founded the Zenith Radio Corporation .
The company quickly became the industry leader alongside Philco . In the mid-1920s, Zenith established the predecessor organization of the Consumer Electronics Association . In addition, under the direction of Zenith, the National Association of Broadcasters was founded, the first president of which was Eugene McDonald. The agency, which later became the Federal Communications Commission , was also set up on the recommendation of Zenith.
In 1924, Zenith launched the world's first portable radio. The first radio with buttons for station selection followed in 1927. In the same year, Zenith introduced the advertising slogan "The Quality Goes In Before The Name Goes On", which is well known in the USA in particular : The quality counts more than the [brand] name.
Zenith began experimenting with television broadcasting in the 1930s and in 1948 the company shipped its first black and white televisions . In 1955 the company developed the first wireless remote control with the Flash-Matic and in 1956 brought out the first ultrasonic remote control with the Space Commander . In 1961 the first Zenith color television hit the American market.
Due to market pressures in the consumer electronics segment, Zenith entered the electronic components and cable television market in the late 1970s. In 1979, the company bought Heathkit , based in Benton Harbor , Michigan, for $ 64.5 million . Heathkit was the leading manufacturer of electronic kits at the time and had just started making personal computers . The company became Zenith Data Systems upon purchase . In 1989, Zenith sold its Data Systems division to Groupe Bull , which ZDS sold to Packard Bell in 1996 for $ 650 million .
In 1982 Zenith sold the last radio and in 1984 changed the company name to Zenith Electronics Corporation . In November 1999 the company was taken over by the LG Group .
Zenith Data Systems (ZDS)
In order to enter the market with electronic components, Zenith bought the Heathkit company in 1979 and renamed it Zenith Data Systems. Initially, Heathkit computers such as the H89 were resold under the Zenith Data Systems label as the Z-89. This computer was based on a Z80 processor and was operated with the HDOS or CP / M operating systems.
In 1981 ZDS introduced the Z-100. This PC had both a Z80 processor and an Intel 8088 CPU and used an S-100 bus . In 1983, Zenith Data Systems signed an agreement with the United States Navy and the United States Air Force to purchase 6000 Z-100 computers. The device cost $ 2,899 for end users at the time. This major order was followed by further orders from US government institutions in the coming years, and the German Bundeswehr also relied on Zenith computers. In 1986 the United States Military Academy at West Point bought Z-248 SX computers to use computers in teaching for the first time.
In 1985 Zenith released a portable PC - the Zenith Z-171 weighing over 6 kg . The first laptops followed in 1987 - the Z-181 and Z-183 models. Like the Z-171, they were based on an Intel 8088 CPU. The Z-181 was equipped with two 5¼ "floppy disk drives, while the Z-183 was supplied with a floppy disk drive and a hard disk. The successor model, SupersPORT, was then already equipped with an Intel 80286. The US Navy chose this model for its first major order Laptops by an American government agency, at the time Zenith dominated the laptop market.
In 1989 Zenith introduced the minisPORT . This forerunner of a subnotebook was based on an Intel 80C88 CPU and was the only laptop that used 2 "floppy disks.
In 1994 ZDS developed the Enhanced Parallel Port together with Intel and Xircom .
Zenith Data Systems sponsored the Full Members Cup from 1989 until its end in 1992.
Products
swell
Individual evidence
- ^ Ernie Gross: This Day in American History , Deutsche Wirtschaft AG 1991, ISBN 1-55570-046-2 , page 88
- ^ Alfred Dupont Chandler, Takashi Hikino, Andrew Von Nordenflycht: Inventing the Electronic Century: The Epic Story of the Consumer Electronics and Computer Industries , Harvard University Press 2005, ISBN 0-674-01805-2 , p. 23
- ^ Raymond G. Carey, Robert C. Lloyd: Measuring Quality Improvement in Healthcare: A Guide to Statistical Process Control Applications , American Society for Quality 1995, ISBN 0-527-76293-8 , page 1
- ↑ Article on Spiegel-Online from December 3, 2008
- ^ A b Roy A. Allan: A History of the Personal Computer: The People and the Technology , Allan Publishing 2001, ISBN 0-9689108-0-7
- ↑ Annual review 1996 on mac.com ( Memento from December 15, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ George Kozmetsky, Piyu Yue: Global Economic Competition: Today's Warfare in Global Electronics Industries and Companies , Springer 1997, ISBN 0-7923-9854-8 , page 229
- ^ National Research Council (US): Managing Microcomputers in Large Organizations , National Academies Press 1985, ISBN 0-309-03492-2 , page 96
- ↑ Choosing The Computer That's Right For You , article in Popular Electronics magazine, August 1983 , accessed December 14, 2008
- ↑ Div. Authors: PC: The Independent Guide to IBM Personal Computers , Software Communications 1987
- ^ A b Roger More: Transforming New Technologies Into Cash Flow: Creating Market-focused Strategic Paths for Business-to-business Companies , Haworth Press 2006, ISBN 0-7890-3021-7
- ^ Howard Austerlitz: Data Acquisition Techniques Using PCs , Academic Press 2003, ISBN 0-12-068377-6 , p. 148