LG, Sharp, Chunghwa Fined For Price-Fixing

TWICE: LG, Sharp, Chunghwa Fined $585M For LCD Price Fixing

More details are in concerning the $585 million in criminal fines being levied against LG Display, Sharp and Chunghwa Picture Tubes by the Department of Justice's (DOJ) antitrust division for LCD panel price fixing.
In a release by the DOJ the three companies have agreed to pay the fines for their roles in conspiracies to fix prices in the sale of LCD panels. Of the $585 million in fines, LG Display will pay $400 million, the second highest criminal fine ever imposed by the department’s antitrust division.

Not to underplay the seriousness of the allegations, but's good to know that the US DOJ doesn't have any other pressing issues to devote their resources to.

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Sony Number One In LCD TV Shipments

See, I'm not always hounding Sony about their failures. I give them their laurels too.

Marketnews: Sony Jumps to Number-One in LCD

In a quick turn of events, Sony jumped four spots to acquire the number one spot in LCD shipments worldwide during the fourth quarter of 2007. In Q3, Sony was fourth overall when it came to unit shipments, trailing behind Sharp, Vizio, and Samsung.
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According to figures provided by DisplaySearch in its Global TV Shipment and Forecast Report, Sony’s share increased to 12.8 per cent from just under 10 per cent in the previous quarter, representing a whopping 83 per cent quarter-over-quarter growth. Sony led the pack in large-sized LCD TVS ranging in size from 40-54”.

All of this begs the issue that from a performance standpoint, plasma remains superior to LCD, but let's not let that rain on Sony's parade. In terms of LCD flat panels, they are very good at what they do.

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Hitachi debuts new super flat panels

Thin is definetely in, as brands such as Sharp and now Hitachi are bowing new LCD sets that are thinner than Paris Hilton.


TWICE: Hitachi Unveils 1.5-Inch Ultra Thin LCDs

Hitachi revealed today it has developed a new line of 1.5-inch (35mm) Ultra Thin LCD HDTVS.Hitachi said it expects to be the first among a group of manufacturers preparing ultra-thin flat-panel displays to market the new products. The first Ultra Thin LCD TV series models are set to arrive on Japan’s retail shelves in December.
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Models in the series will feature the 32-, 37- and 42-inch screen sizes, and the two larger models will have 1080p HD resolution. The 32-inch model, which will have 1366-by-768 resolution, will ship in the U.S. in first quarter of 2008 and the 37- and 42-inch models will ship in the U.S. in the second quarter of 2008. Prices will be announced later.

I'd like to point out that the Hitachi LCD's that I looked at in Denver during CEDIA were fantastic looking. Even better than the *gasp* Sharp LCD's which up until now I have considered to be the top of the heap.

In demo situations at trade shows, most LCD makers are very careful to use HD video demo material that is either still life, such as flowers and bowls of fruit, or very slow side pans, such as pretty girls strolling through forests and meadows. Since LCD's often choke on fast motion, action movies are right out for demos.

The 42-inch Hitachi LCD's in Denver had an HD loop running that included motocross racers tearing along at high speed, and the LCD's performance with fast motion was impressive. Virtually no stair stepping, and zero dropouts and lag.

Granted, I admit that I am a video snob, and most consumers are not going to notice the things that I notice, but Hitachi's entrance in the LCD business looks like a great leap forward.

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Sharp opens North American plant

In the same week that Toshiba announced their new LCD plant in Poland, Sharp has officially opened a new factory in Mexico.

TWICE: Sharp Christens First North American Panel Plant

Sharp Corp. officially opened the industry’s first LCD panel plant in North America yesterday, which will dramatically reduce lead times and increase production capacity for the U.S. market, the company said.
The five-month-old facility, located in Baja California, sits adjacent to Sharp’s
original Mexican TV plant, which began making tube sets ten years ago. But unlikeits forerunner, which now assembles LCD TVs from sea-shipped components, the new integrated plant is building finished TVs with LCD panels produced on-site from glass substrate flown in from Kameyama, Japan.

The Baja plant is an assembly plant, which will still reduce the logistical costs of marketing LCD TVs. For those of you in retail, don't be surprised at the knee-jerk reaction from some clients when they find out that their TV is no longer "Made in Japan." They'll get over it.

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Today on Gadget Talk: The Size of things to come

Marketnews Gadget Talk: Big Changes come in Small Packages

While the sizes may be unexciting, the leaps that are being made in LCD and OLED are going to be earthshaking, and will have a huge impact on devices with displays, from phones and pocket computers (will there even be two different categories in three year’s time?) to kitchen appliances, onwards to obvious things like laptop monitors and, of course, televisions.

Besides, today it’s a 12-inch display that’s less than an inch thick. Tomorrow it might be a 70-inch television hanging on your wall that’s no thicker. Now are you excited?

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Sony and Samsung still happy together

IHT: Samsung-Sony joint venture begin shipping 52-inch LCD panels

SEOUL, South Korea: Samsung
Electronics Co. and Sony Corp. on Tuesday began shipping panels for large-sized flat screen televisions from the newest production line at their liquid crystal display joint venture.
The eighth generation line at the venture, called S-LCD Corp., makes panels of 46 inches and 52 inches measured diagonally from corner to corner."Our sights are now on LCD TVs in the 50-inch class and we aim to lead that segment," Chang Won-kie said in a statement. The first panels shipped were 52-inch ones.
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Samsung and Sony founded S-LCD in 2004 to produce panels to meet demand for flat screen televisions, which has soared in recent years as consumers give up bulky cathode-ray tube sets for the sleeker versions.

I'll be upfront and say that I have a personal bias against Samsung. I've never been blown away by their image quality. In addition, way back in the days when Rear-Projection CRT big screens were king, I was soured by an inordinate number of units that crapped out in client's homes one Christmas season. I admit that it's not particularly rational, but that's my bias.

I will be fair and say that Samsung did a fantastic job of promoting DLP technology to the marketplace, and were extremely innovative with it. Overall, Samsung has clawed their way to a premier position amongst electronics companies and they deserve their success, more or less.

It's probably a sign of both Samsung's star being on the zenith, and Sony's on the apogee that the two shacked up together three years ago to collaborate on LCD flat panels. CE today is a complex playing field, where competitors are also collaborators. Fifteen years ago it would have been unthinkable for Sony to partner with a rival brand this way. Of course, it's exactly that kind of thinking that has put them into the pickle that Sony now finds itself in.

With a course set for a slow, stately decline, Sony carries on like a fading empire, only mildly heeding the world around it, still self-consciously believing in its supremacy, but quietly hiring barbarian mercenaries to protect its borders from barbarian invaders.

Okay, maybe I spun that metaphor out a little far, but at the moment, Sony and Samsung combined haven't managed to usurp Sharp's technological primacy in the LCD business. Will they? I don't know. We'll have to see.

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LCD will allegedly Snag 75 Per Cent of the Flat-Panel Market by 2011

I have a problem with long term forecasts, as many of you well know.

Marketnews: LCD to Snag 75 Per Cent of the Flat-Panel Market by 2011

Market research firm In-Stat has boldly predicted that LCD
will succeed in grabbing nearly three-quarters of the worldwide digital TV
market for 2011; while plasma will decline to less than 15 per cent. The results
are based on seven end-user surveys that In-Stat conducted in three regions
across the world: North America (in the U.S. and Canada); Asia (Japan and
Korea); and Europe (UK, France, and Germany).

That sounds like a wonderfully expert-sounding prognostication, but I'm not sold.

Maybe it's because I'm dug deep into Taleb's The Black Swan, but I'm skeptical about even experts being able to forecast accurately based on the data they presently have.

For starters, there's a handful of nascent video display technologies, such as Organic LED, any one of which may blow up into the Next Big Thing. There is zero guarantee that either LCD or Plasma won't be yesterday's news in four years time.

I'm just throwing that out there for you to think about...

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Sharp sues Samsung over LCD patent infringement

TWICE: Sharp Files LCD Infringement Lawsuit Against Samsung

Sharp Corp. filed a lawsuit today alleging infringements of five of its patents on LCD-related technology by Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (Samsung) and its U.S. subsidiaries Samsung Electronics America (SEA) and Samsung Telecommunications America (STA) in the U.S. District Court in Marshall, Texas.
The complaint alleges that the following products infringe LCD-related patents that are owned by Sharp: liquid crystal display (LCD) modules manufactured by Samsung and sold in the United States by Samsung; LCD TVs and LCD monitors which incorporate the LCD modules manufactured by Samsung and are sold in the U.S. by SEA; and mobile phones which incorporate the LCD modules manufactured by Samsung and are sold in the U.S. by STA.
In the complaint, Sharp requests that the Court award compensatory damages to Sharp and prohibit the sales of the infringing products. Sharp also requests a jury trial.

Less tech savy readers may wonder why it's taken this long to go to tort. After all, how many ways are there to manufacture LCD panels?

Surprisingly, quite a few. Sharp still remains the industry leader in LCD technology, and last week announced their 10th generation panel technology. Most other makers are only using 7th or 8th Gen processes. This is, in simple terms, why Sharp's video displays are visibly superior to any of the other LCD brands that I have ever taken a hard look at.

Ultimately though, it all comes down to money. It was only a matter of time before another manufacturer stepped on Sharp's toes, intentionally or otherwise. As the article states, Sharp and Samsung have been negotiating a licencing agreement since last year. Now apparently at an impasse, Sharp has chosen hardball as their next negotiating tactic. I would expect Samsung to settle quietly before the end of the year.

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LG working smarter, not harder, on plasma tvs

TWICE: LG Uses New Technique For PDP Production

LG Electronics initiated today a new panel production process on its A3 plasma display panel (PDP) line in Gumi, South Korea that will produce eight panels instead of six from one sheet of glass substrate.
The process, which LG calls its “8-up” technique, is said to maximize LG’s PDP production capacity by stretching the number of panels from a single glass substrate.
“To accommodate increasing demand for plasma display panels, LG will maximize its production efficiency, especially in the second half of the year,” said Simon Kang, LG Electronics Digital Display Co. CEO. “This is part of our ongoing campaign to streamline our production system.”
The improved eight-up processing will increase LG’s total capacity per month by 22 percent, from 360,000 to 440,000 panels, greater than the total capacity before the outdated A1 line was shut down, the company said.
LG said its strategy to raise efficiency entails increasing per-line capacity while closing older, less efficient lines. In addition, glass substrate sheets used for LG’s eight-up PDP production will be increased to 77 inches by 86.6 inches in size, compared with glass sheets of 77 by 64.9 inches size used for six-up processing.

Last month, when LG announced that they were shutting down their A1 production line, some pundits were calling it a death knell for plasma in the marketplace, and were practically hoisting LCD onto the winner's podium. This was, in retrospect, premature. It also points to the bicameral nature of the human mind, especially when it comes to punditry: we've always got to draw a line between winner/loser, inside/outside, apple/orange, even if that line is almost entirely imaginary.

The reality is that there is enough market for video displays for everyone, and both LCD and plasma have carved out their own niches. Given how major brands have invested deeply in one or the other, and have bent their backs to the marketing and production of one or the other (or sometimes both!), I don't see either technology headed for the scrap heap yet.

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