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BusinessWeek: The company behind Panasonic is raking in profits, yet is concerned about falling flat-panel TV prices and LCD makers’ latest offensive.

Last Friday, the world’s largest consumer-electronics maker said flat-panel TVs and digital cameras were responsible for one of its best quarters in more than a decade, putting it on track for a fifth straight year of big gains. It was vindication of Matsushita’s strategy of betting big on the plasma TV business.

Matsushita, which has one-third of the plasma TV market, has been kicking the stuffing out of rivals and raking in profits despite sharply falling prices of TVs and other consumer electronics worldwide. The company said third-quarter operating profit rose 5% to $1.12 billion on a 2% uptick in sales to $20 billion.

The division that makes TVs, digital cameras and SD memory cards posted operating margins above 6%—a first—thanks to brisk sales and a weak yen, which boosts the value of overseas earnings. The strong performance prompted the company to revise upward its full-year net profit and sales forecasts.

Still, Matsushita, best known for its Panasonic brand, isn’t resting easy.

Only a week ago, LG – the world’s No. 2 plasma TV maker—reported that its digital display division had racked up a stunning $158 million operating loss in the fourth quarter and that it wouldn’t expand beyond its current capacity of 550,000 panels a month.

You would think Matsushita would be giddy at the prospect of being able to pick up additional market share from struggling rivals. But Executive Vice-President Tetsuya Kawakami doesn’t see things that way. “Having just one plasma maker in the world—Matsushita—wouldn’t be a good thing,” he said.

Kawakami frets that if LG and Samsung bow out of the race, consumers might get the impression that plasma is inferior to liquid-crystal displays, the other main flat-panel TV technology.

Sales of flat panels have been surging at double-digit rates as consumers swap their clunky old picture-tube sets for sleek new ones.

This year, LCD sales could jump 56% to 69.7 million units, vs. a 33% gain to 12.8 million for plasma, according to market research firm DisplaySearch. The giant screens will be where the pitched battles occur in coming years.

Matsushita is already heavily invested in what it hopes will be a booming big-screen TV market. In January, President Fumio Ohtsubo unveiled plans to set aside $2.35 billion for a fifth plasma panel plant in Japan, even before the fourth facility, located on a nearby plot, has been finished. The new plant will make larger sheets of glass than any of the older plants, which means more panels for TVs can be cut from each sheet. By next year, Matsushita’s plants are expected to be churning out a half-million sets a month—more than 11 a minute.

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Forbes: Hitachi will postpone by about six months a decision on building a new factory for plasma TVs because of stiff competition and sharp price declines, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported over the weekend, without identifying sources.

The company had initially planned to decide on a location and construction time frame for the new plant by the end of March.

Hitachi’s plasma production subsidiary, Fujitsu Hitachi Plasma Display Ltd, had just constructed a plant last October next to its existing facility in Miyazaki Prefecture. The proposed factory would be its third.

But because of difficult market conditions, such as prices falling about 20% per year, Hitachi intends to make a decision on the plant by autumn after looking at trends for the spring shopping season, the report said.

Until construction of the plant is finalized, the firm will boost output by revising production processes at existing sites, it said.

The company plans to double its annual panel production capacity by autumn to 4 mln panels in terms of 42-inch products, the report said.

Last week, plasma maker Pioneer announced that they had also delayed plans for a new plasma plant.

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Webitpr: David Blaine, the world famous illusionist and endurance artist, has signed a deal with LG Mobile which will see him become the face of LG Shine, the next model in LG’s ultra stylish Black Label series.

The launch of LG Shine will see David Blaine return once again to London, where he will perform in the same theatre that the legendary Houdini cemented his fame in the world of illusion 100 years ago. David Blaine’s visit will also mark the first time the magician will directly interact with British fans, as he mingles with guests demonstrating the very reason he was crowned the King of Cards. (…)

Since its November launch in Korea, the stunning LG Shine has been hugely successful, already outselling the award winning LG Chocolate handset. The LG Shine phone oozes sophistication with its super thin brushed metal finish and “magic mirror” front that disappears when the phone slides open.

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Crave: Most of the so-called multimedia furniture pieces we’ve seen are unsightly contraptions that seem to treat their media components as an afterthought. Not so with the “Sonic Chair Boom Box.”This piece of digital furniture also has brains to match the beauty of its Austin Powers-era design. Uber-Review says it reserves the soundwaves for the person sitting in it, without disturbing others nearby: “The speakers are encased in a carefully crafted body that creates sufficient volume for powerful bass tones, while two body-focused sound generators, in the seat and the backrest, further augment the lower frequencies–recreating the feeling of a live performance.”

And all you need is a hairless cat to do an awesome Dr. Evil impersonation.

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Heise: In the wake of the publication of the results of a new study pointing to mobile phones as a possible human health hazard the German Cancer Aid foundation has warned against “spreading panic.”

In a talk with the German daily Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung the head of the advisory committee of the German Cancer Aid foundation, Professor Otmar Wiestler, said that to this day the mechanisms by which brain tumors develop are essentially unknown.

“Even the data of the study conducted in the five North European countries does not provide unambiguous proof that will stand up to scientific scrutiny,” Mr. Wiestler said.

(more…)

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Newlaunches: The Nintendo DS has many uses apart from gaming for eg in Japan it is used as a guide in museum and like a cookbook too. Not far away in Korea it will now be used by students to learn English. It makes full use of the touchpad also as students not only learn to speak but also learn writing simple English sentences. Upto 8 players can play word games simultaneously using the multiplayer option.

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Phonemag: u-blox AG will unveil u-blox 5, a GPS and Galileo-ready chip featuring an acquisition performance of less than one second, at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona.The new technology boasts an acquisition and tracking sensitivity of -160 dBm that enables indoor coverage, a 50-channel engine and a power consumption of less than 50 mW. Its energy efficiency and tracking sensitivity make it ideal for GPS-enabled mobile phones and other battery-operated portable devices that operate in difficult indoor environments like shopping malls, train stations and urban canyons.

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My iPhone: Everything may be all right between Cisco and Apple – after all. Business Wire (…) released a joint statement: Apple and Cisco have agreed to extend the time for Apple to respond to the lawsuit to allow for discussions between the companies with the aim of reaching agreement on trademark rights and interoperability.

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TG Daily: According to figures released by Nielsen VideoScan, recent Blu-Ray sales are beating HD-DVD by a 2 to 1 margin. The figures add up sales from retail registers, along with some websites, and cover the second week of January 2007.

According to Nielsen, Blu-Ray has also closed the gap in total sales since inception from 14% to 7%. If the trend continues, Blu-Ray should overtake HD-DVD in less than a month.

The most popular Blu-Ray disc during the reporting perod was Crank with Black Hawk Down as a distant second. Batman Returns was the most bought HD-DVD disc with Mission Impossible III following behind.

One easy explanation for Blu-Ray’s rise is the included player inside of all Sony PlayStation 3 consoles. Millions of consoles have been sold and most include a voucher for money back on a Blu-Ray disc purchase.

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TechDigest: A new survey conducted by UK insurance firm Cornhill Direct has shown that the average teenager walks around with an average of £768 (around €1,160) worth of clothing, accessories, and gadgetry.

Electronics items like mobile phones and MP3 players make up for around £300 (€450) of that total, with watches accounting for a further £75 (€113).

Teens carry at least one mobile phone, bought for an average £127.58 (€192), and one MP3 player costing on average £150 (€226).

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AV zombie: Victor Company of Japan (aka JVC) has posted woeful third quarter financial figures. The company has announced consolidated sales of 205 billion yen, down 15 per cent year-on-year. It’s operating income of 0.7 billion yen represents a 48 per cent drop compared to the same period last year. JVC blames tough trading in consumer electronics and declines in sales of CRT and D-ILA TVs.

Profits from consumer electronics declined year-on-year in Japan. Bright spots in Europe were provided by its camcorder range and LCD TV lineup, but this was impacted by its elimination of DVD recorders and sluggish sales of audio products. Total sales in the consumer electronics segment were 154.0 billion yen, down 17 per cent year-on-year.

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TechDigest: Sony America tried to insult the Nintendo Wii’s runaway success by calling it an ‘impluse buy’. Sony spokesperson Dave Karraker said that the PS3 was far more powerful and should be considered as being in a different category from the Wii.

“Wii could be considered an impulse buy more than anything else,” he said, claiming that demand for the Wii is fuelled by Nintendo shipping less stock. That claim is refuted by Nintendo who say that they are shipping at least as many consoles as Sony in the US.

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