About Electronics

AV Zombie: Samsung has been quick to announce that it has ousted flatscreen rival Panasonic from the top of the plasma sales charts. According to data released by market research outfit NPD, the Korean giant moved ahead of Panasonic capturing a 32 per cent market share of the American plasma market in the first two weeks of March.

The two manufacturers are locked in an increasingly bitter war for market share. Samsung’s new digital media division chief, Park Jong-woo, has vowed to end Panasonic parent Matsushita’s long-standing dominance of the plasma market this year. A spokesperson claimed that supply problems from Samsung’s SDI panel-making operation led to it being beaten into third place for worldwide plasma sales in 2006, but that had now been resolved. “SDI now provides better-performing plasma panels which are optimized for our TV sets.”

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New York Times: The Federal Communications Commission will give up on the idea of allowing cellphone use on airplanes, the chairman said on Thursday, because it is not clear whether the network on the ground can handle the calls.

While the chairman, Kevin J. Martin, cited a technical reason, thousands of air passengers have written to the F.C.C., urging rejection of the proposal because of the potential for irritating passengers in airline cabins. The Federal Aviation Administration had been laying the groundwork to allow in-flight cellphone use.

Both agencies would have had to approve before the phones could be legally used on board.

The problem cited by Mr. Martin did not have to do with flight safety or the mood in the cabin, but a problem raised by the cellphone industry. The system is designed for phones to communicate with a single cell tower at a time. But a cellphone that is several miles in the air can contact many towers at once, tying up circuits in all of them, the industry argued.

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Mobile Guerilla: Following last week’s rumors regarding a possible partnership with Samsung to create the Google Phone, the search engine giant has quickly issued a statement denying everything.The company said that they are busy working on software and creating a phone would be a “dramatic shift in the company’s business model”. They want to port their technologies to mobile devices and they are not interested in developing a handset.

Softbank too denied iPhone rumors a little while ago, and look what happened. So don’t give up on this just yet.

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Next Generation: Outside the Fnac store, right on the large side walk of “la plus belle avenue du monde”, security people in red jackets were ready to guard a big line of PS3 lovers. All that was missing was the line itelf. At 8pm, a young man sauntered along. A bevy of cameras and microphones turned to him. But he didn’t have anything to say.

Aah Paris in the spring. Sony missed a November launch, but the temperature said otherwise. This might have been a Spring arrival, but there was little evidence of skipping through daffodils. Everyone out of doors in Paris was freezing cold.

And who wants to wait several hours in the freezing cold for a €599 machine? That was the question obsessing the media here last night. In between debates on the presidential campaign, the only talk was ‘why PS3 is so expensive?’. (…)

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Gizmodo: Walt Mossburg said in his review that “Apple TV’s most formidable competitor is the Xbox 360 game console from Microsoft, which, in addition to playing games, can also play back content from Windows computers on a TV.” The Times’ techmeister David Pogue also calls up the 360 Media Extender in his review, as well some other gadgets.In our head-to-head, we took Vista Ultimate and used a 360 as a Windows Media Extender. With this setup, we came to the conclusion that the hulking white box ekes out the slimmer, shorter Apple TV—unless you have a standard XP computer with Media Center, or copious amounts of Apple iTunes DRM’d content. (…)

–Conclusion–
If you use iTunes as your primary media software and want to get your content on your widescreen TV, it’s not a bad way to do it, but that’s all it does (for now). If you already have a 360 and don’t mind Media Center, I see little point in blowing $300 (225 euro) on Apple TV if all that concerns you is bringing content stuck on your PC to your TV. You already have a $400 (300 euro) machine that does more than port media, it plays games. Great ones. And soon it’ll be an IPTV box to boot.

Apple TV is a bit more elegant in its presentation, I think, and it’s slightly easier to get to content with it, but it could do better. More importantly, it doesn’t do what it does so much better than the 360/Media Center setup that it warrants a separate purchase if you already have a 360, or even plan on getting one. Value-wise, the 360 is the winner here, at least for now.

But there are better convergence solutions on the horizon, so if you don’t need one of these now sit tight, because things are only going to get better.

(AE: for the full review, please visit Gizmodo.)

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DigiTimes: Leading LCD panel makers such as Samsung and  LG.Philips LCD are pushing 50-inch class TV panels this year to compete against PDP (plasma display panel) suppliers in the large-size TV market, according to sources.

Samsung plans to introduce two new 52-inch LCD TV panels in the second quarter, the sources said. The panels will feature a contrast ratio of 2,000:1, compared to 1,200:1 before. In the third quarter, the company will also launch 57-inch panels with a response time of 6ms and contrast ratio of 2,000:1, the sources indicated.

Samsung will also unveil 70- and 82-inch panels later in 2007, the sources added. A seventh-generation (7G) substrate can be cut into three 52-inch panels or two 70-inch panels, the sources said.

LG.Philips LCD schedules to roll out its first 52-inch full high-definition (HD) panel in April, panel makers said. The panel will have dynamic contrast ratio of 5,000:1 and response time of 5ms. The Korea-based player has already started shipping 55-inch TV panels in small volumes, the makers added.

Despite the aggressive plans from the LCD panel makers in the large-size TV market, PDP TV will still dominate the 50-inch class flat-panel TV market in the near term thanks to its pricing advantage, the sources explained. The sales volume for 50-inch class LCD TVs will only account for 1% of total LCD TV shipments in 2007, according to DisplaySearch.

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Digital Trends: Finland’s Nokia has begun shipping its top-flight N95 Internet- and multimedia-savvy smartphone, marking the company’s latest attempt to integrate mobile phone functionality with a media player, video camera, high-resolution still photography, mapping and location services, and mobile Internet capability. And if that sounds interesting, you’d better live in Europe, Asia, or the Middle East, because there’s no word on when—if ever—the N95 will make it to the North American market.The N95 features a two-way slider design, sporting a 2.6-inch 320 by 240 pixel LCD display, and an integrated video-capable 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics.

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Yahoo: Computer games fans slept on the floor of a London store on Thursday to be among the first in Europe to buy Sony’s PlayStation 3 console, despite concerns over its price.

A small group of shoppers snatched a few hours’ rest in sleeping bags at the Virgin Megastore and enjoyed a sneak preview of a motor racing game before the machine goes on sale at midnight.

But there was little sign of the frenzy that surrounded its launch in the United States and Japan last year when thousands queued or camped outside stores.

Only a handful of gamers were queuing at major London stores early on Thursday. (…)

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Heise: Let Beyoncé handle it. Korean electronics firm Samsung wants to give its stagnating sales of cell phones in Germany a boost with the help of such prominent artists as American R&B singer, who will be pointing out Samsung’s competence in multimedia cell phones.

Having entered the market to beat out Motorola for second position on the global market, Samsung’s market share in Germany is still only at around 12 percent, below the European average.

Now, Samsung’s marketing director David Steel has revealed to the Financial Times Deutschland (FTD) that new devices with music functions and megapixel cameras are to change all that. (more…)

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AV Zombie: LG has announced sponsorship of the 60th Cannes Film Festival (16-27 May). As part of the deal, the brand’s upcoming range of Full HD LCD TV and plasma flatpanel range will litter the palais des festivals, running movie clips and festival news.
A star-struck James Kim, President and CEO of LG Europe said: “We are delighted to be a partner of the Cannes Film Festival which celebrates the best that the film industry has to offer. Through our range of TV products LG is committed to enhancing the visual experience by displaying the great work of acclaimed actors, directors and filmmakers in its best light.”
LG’s Full HD TVs will go on sale in the UK from May.

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Heise: In response to Wolfgang Tiefensee, the German Federal Minister of Transport, Building and Urban Affairs, exercising his authority the partners to the European satellite navigation project resolved their differences yesterday and signed the articles of incorporation of the licensed company.

Mr. Tiefensee had threatened to invite new tenders for the project, should the companies fail to resolve their differences. The Spaniards had been the first to sign on Tuesday, Parisian industry circles reported. What was now on the agenda was extensive negotiations with the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Commission, it was said.

Tomorrow the EU ministers of transport will discuss the project, which involves positioning a fleet of 26 navigation satellites in orbit by 2011. Galileo is meant to make the Europeans independent of the United States, which can decide to disable civilian use of its GPS navigation system during military operations.

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CNET News: The good news for plasma TV makers is that the industry will likely grow at 14 percent a year for the foreseeable future, and see unit shipments grow from 13.4 milion this year to 22.7 million in 2011, according to iSuppli.

The bad news is that average selling prices will decline 13 percent a year, thanks to increased manufacturing efficiencies and pressure from LCD TVs, so revenue will only grow slightly over the next five years.

Within this constrained environment, Matsushita, which sells its TVs under the Panasonic brand, is doing the best. It increased its market share to 37.3 percent in the fourth quarter.

LG Electronics and Samsung clocked in at No. 2 and No. 3 with 24.2 percent and 21.1 percent market share, respectively.

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