[T-N-T]

> Why spend billions in R&D?

Because it's profitable.

Once upon a time, Japan was perceived the way we currently perceive China : a land where cheap, flimsy knockoffs were produced. The first camera made by Canon (which is, today, the most popular camera manufacturers in many segments of photography, such as journalism) was a 100% copy of Leica designs. There was literally no innovation whatsoever, just copy of german engineering.

But once the corporations acquired the base know how, developed better quality control and started to gain popularity in the low end, they reinvested their money into R&D, and they now are one of the best brands of the market, cornering both the low end and the high end. Almost every single western camera brand died except for Leica, which survived mostly on selling brand recognition to people who have more money than sense (this is particularly true for the people who buy the idiotic non-rangefinder Leica camera that are actually made by Panasonic which are virtually identical to other panasonic lumix models and sold at a premium because there's a Leica badge).

Most well known japanese brands started like Canon.

I believe we're already starting to see the transition from 'eh, knockoff' to companies that are reinvesting in R&D in China and this is going to eat at all the markets previously corned by silicon valley giants. Good smartphones are already a commodity. I have the Honor 8, which is made by Huawei, who build their own system-on-chips like Apple and Samsung. It's still running as fast as it was on day one and I probably won't feel the need to change for something else as long as it keeps working. The only thing they need to improve on is the camera quality and if they can manage to rival top end smartphones in terms of cameras in the future they will lay waste upon Samsung. Apple might survive because like Leica they have a heavy contingent of people with more money than sense that are loyal to status symbols/veblen goods.