Whenever the world moves to a slightly more expensive technology, it always causes shortages in Russia – a country noteworthy for its love affairs with the cheapest products on the market. As the world’s monitor manufacturers make the transition from 14 to 15 monitors, Russia is now experiencing a big shortage of 14 monitors. Only five companies in the world now turn out 14 cathode ray tubes in volume: Orion Instruments Inc, LG Group Ltd, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, Chunghwa Electronics and Philips Taiwan. Last month both Samsung and Goldstar Moscow were suffering from availability problems and there is an acute shortage of 14 monitors in the Russian capital. A spokesman for Samsung Moscow says that the problem is being exacerbated by the distributors of brand personal computers. These companies are buying up as many 14 monitors as they can because the international vendors are also having trouble supplying enough small monitors with their personal computers. So acute is the problem that LG International, which sells the Logix brand of monitors, has managed to take a slice of the market simply by having the product available. LG International says it was selling five containers-full of monitors a month in the last quarter of 1995 (4,000 units) up from very little six months ago.
