DISPLAY TECHNOLOGIES JOCKEY FOR POSITION
With the transition to larger glass substrates and better yields, LCD and plasma TV companies are pumping out a greater variety of sizes as they fill in gaps in product lines and in some cases enter the market for the first time.
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Samsung unveiled a 46W LCD TV at last week’s Home Entertainment Show in N.Y.C. that it will ship in July at $9,999 with 1,920x1080p resolution, 500 candelas and 800:1 contrast ratio. At the same time, Samsung plans to add a 55W integrated HD plasma TV in Sept. ($10,000) using a Fujitsu-sourced panel to fill in a gap between its 50W and 63W models, said Jonas Tanenbaum, senior mktg. mgr. for digital flat panel products at Samsung. A 70W plasma TV with 1,920x1080p is expected to follow by first quarter 2005, Tanenbaum said. Meanwhile, Samsung recently lowered the price of the 63W to $17,999 from $19,999, company officials said.
Part of Samsung’s push to larger LCD sizes -- it has shown prototypes as large as 57W -- will be fueled by the emergence of 7th-generation (7G) manufacturing that uses 1.8x2.2 m glass substrates and is scheduled to start production early 2005. Samsung’s move to 7G manufacturing, which includes an investment from Sony, will let it focus production on 32W, 40W and 46W sizes, while using the 5G production lines for smaller sizes, Tanenbaum said.
The increased production capacity industrywide -- which includes Chunghwa Picture Tubes’ recent test production of 37W LCD panels and plans for building 32W across 4.5G lines in July - - will allow new competitors to enter the market. The 30W screen size, however, will remain CPT’s for this year as prices for it decline 17-25% by year-end, Sales & Mktg. Vp C.C. Liu told Digitimes.
Among the new arrivals likely to benefit from increased LCD production, will be Hewlett-Packard (HP). It recently took the wraps off a 23W HD monitor ($2,199) with 1,920x1,200 resolution, 250 nits brightness, 500:1 contrast ratio and 16-millisecond response time. HP’s 23W allows the PC giant to dip into the CE market, while maintaining its ties to the computer category. While the monitor can display up to 1080p, much of its emphasis is on PCs down to the blue bezel that’s designed to complement HP’s Windows Media Center computers.
The broad array of LCD TV brands, while benefiting from the increased production capacity, also is giving some companies pause for thought before entering the market. Runco, which once showed a 22W LCD, has chosen instead to focus on plasma TVs for its own and Vidikron brands. “I'm not sold on it because I see a super competitive product that has a lot of price pressure,” a Vidikron spokesman said: “We would be more expensive and it’s a question of how do we justify that?”