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HDTV News: LG Philips is planning to reveal a 52-inch (132cm) multi-touch LCD at the Consumer Electronics Show which opens in Las Vegas on 7 January. The model is the largest multi-touch LCD in the world.Multi-touch screens represent an advance on conventional touchpanels which use capacitive resistance to measure touch and only allow input from one point on the screen.

Multi-touch screens, on the other hand, use small infrared sensors, which allow input from more than one point.

Input can be either from fingers or other instruments, and multi-touch technology is also able to recognise gestures such as the movement of fingers.

The technology is expected to allow users to zoom in on images, such as maps, and manipulate images with two hands.

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Tech On: LG.Philips LCD Co Ltd has announced its plan to launch a 42-inch TFT-LCD TV panel which is substantially thinner than conventional panels, in the first quarter of 2008. 

This panel is claimed to be 40% thinner and 10% lighter than conventional 42-inch LCD TV panels. Despite its slim profile with only 19.8mm, the panel manages to incorporate 120Hz technology, which eliminates motion blur, and full HD resolution, and is said to be twice as sharp as normal HD resolution.
LG.Philips LCD uses a cold cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL) backlight in this panel, which keeps production costs lower than using a comparable LED backlight. These TVs are also designed to fit into smaller spaces and to be easily mounted on a wall.

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PC World: LG.Philips LCD has developed an LCD panel that is less then 20 millimeters thick, it said Thursday.

The announcement from the South Korean company follows news of similar developments from Japanese competitors in recent weeks and reinforces a growing trend in the flat-panel display business. No longer is the emphasis on making LCD panels bigger; now it’s on making them thinner.

The 19.8-millimeter thick LG.Philips LCD panel is a 42-inch screen with full high-definition resolution making it suitable for use in future televisions. It’s 40 percent thinner and 10 percent lighter than current comparable screens, the company said.

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MarketWatch: Taiwan’s Hon Hai, the world’s largest contract manufacturer of electronics by revenue, will likely buy up to a 15% stake in LG Philips LCD to secure flat panel supply for its affiliate Innolux Display Corp.

Edmund Ding, Hon Hai spokesman, said Sunday he has “never heard of such a plan,” declining to elaborate.

An unnamed Innolux official said the company isn’t aware of any plan by Hon Hai to acquire LG Philips shares, the newspaper said.

Hon Hai is among several global technology firms that are likely buyers of part of the 30% LG Philips stake that Royal Philips Electronics N.V. plans to sell. Other likely buyers include Toshiba, Matsushita, Sharp and IPS Alpha Technology.

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Expatica: Royal Philips Electronics NV is in talks to sell its 33 percent stake in flat panel display maker LG.Philips LCD, Dow Jones Newswires reported Tuesday, a move that could bring it EUR 3.7 billion in proceeds.

Dow Jones cited CEO Gerard Kleisterlee, who was speaking at the Electrical Products Group Conference in Florida.

The Seoul, South Korea-based company has been plagued by oversupply in the market for liquid crystal displays, and is one target of an investigation into anticompetitive practices in the industry by U.S. and Asian regulators. But an industry group said last week that there are signs prices for the displays have stabilized or are rising.

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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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HDTV UK: Philips has recently confirmed that they’ll be phasing out the production of plasma TVs.

CEO of Philips Consumer Electronics, Rudy Provoost, said at a recent press event in Hong Kong that, from later this year, new plasma TVs would only be sold in North America and Australia.

Market analysts have said that Philips’ decision could be related to the strong growth of the LCD TV market, and also that, whilst it has a 32.9% stake in LG.Philips LCD, it doesn’t have any plasma plants to support its own-brand plasma TV business.

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DigiTimes: LG.Philips LCD yesterday issued a press release stating officials from the Korean Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) visited the panel maker’s offices in Seoul, Korea as part of an investigation into possible anticompetitive conduct in the LCD industry.

In addition, the Japanese Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) issued a notice to LPL’s offices in Tokyo, Japan and the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a subpoena to LPL’s offices in San Jose, California.

LG.Philips LCD stated that it takes this matter very seriously and will cooperate fully with regulatory authorities. While these investigations continue, LG.Philips LCD is committed to running its business as usual, the company said.

According to Korea-based Yonhap News, LPL and Samsung Electronics are being investigated on suspicions they rigged LCD prices and controlled supply during an industry boom in 2003-2004.

In 2004, the two South Korea-based makers together shipped 58.4 million large-size panels, capturing about 42% of the global market, while Taiwan shipped 56.5 million large-size panels and accounted for about 40% of global shipments, according to DisplaySearch.

This year, Taiwan is expected to supply 140 million panels, for a worldwide market share of 50%, while Korea will supply 109 million panels for a 39% worldwide market share, according to Taiwan’s Industrial Economics and Knowledge Center (IEK)

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JCN Network: Following yesterday’s news that joint venture LG.Philips LCD faced one of industry’s biggest losses this quarter, Toshiba has announced that that it would make an equity investment in LG.Philips LCD Poland (LPLWR).  Toshiba will invest approximately 5.5 billion yen, giving it a stake approaching 20% of its equity.

Toshiba is reinforcing its European TV operations with Toshiba Television Central Europe (TTCE), a new LCD TV production and sales company in Kobierzyce, near Wroclaw in southwest Poland.

TTCE was established in September 2006 and will begin operation in August 2007 on a site adjacent to LPLWR.

Toshiba’s investment in LPLWR will allow the company to secure long-term, stable procurement of LCD panels at competitive prices and with efficient supply logistics.

Demand for LCD TV is growing fast in Europe, and Toshiba targets total European production of some three million units by fiscal year 2009 at two manufacturing sites, TTCE and Toshiba Information Systems in the UK.

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Bloomberg:  LG.Philips LCD Co., the world’s second biggest liquid-crystal display maker, may report the industry’s heaviest loss for a second straight quarter, underscoring the company’s failed strategy of focusing on LCD TV sales.

The third-quarter net loss was 301 billion won (€252 million), according to the median estimate of 10 analysts in a Bloomberg survey.

Chief Executive Officer Koo Bon Joon, is paying for focusing on the production of TV panels, whose prices have fallen more than those of computer screens after demand failed to live up to expectations.

LG.Philips, the first major LCD maker to disclose earnings when it reports tomorrow, must broaden its customer base to revive earnings, investor Song In Ho said.

LG.Philips LCD’s stock has fallen 29 percent in the past six months, the worst performer of the industry’s five largest producers.

The company formed in 1999 as a joint venture between between LG and Philips.

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Smarthouse: Philips has introduced a 100-inch (245 cm) LCD TV, which includes its exclusive Ambilight display technology, at last week’s IFA technology conference in Berlin.

Philips said that its latest prototype LCD TV measures a massive 100 inches and features four-sided Ambilight technology, called Full Surround, which is expected to create an immersive viewing experience by matching the color and brightness in the images on the screen. (…)
There is also another version of Ambilight that has been unveiled, called Ambilight Surround, which features lighting units on three sides. Both variants of Ambilight will be demonstrated at IFA, including Philips Cineos 42PF9831D FlatTV with Ambilight Full Surround, and the Philips Cineos 37PF9731D FlatTV.

Meanwhile, the company said that it expects to sell one million Ambilight sets by this year’s end. However, it did not reveal a price or launch date.

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First, disappointing LCD revenue had led panel producer LG.Philips to declare a net loss of 399 million dollars (approx. 315 million euro) for the second quarter, which ended June 30.

Now, Samsung Electronics – LG.Philips’ major competitor when it comes to LCD TVs – saw its profits halve this quarter.

The drop has mainly been caused by the worldwide price crash on LCD TVs. While sales have grown, albeit slower than anticipated, the average selling price has declined sharply. One man’s breath is another man’s death: flat TVs become affordable for the average consumer.

(sources: AvZombie.com & Tijd.be)

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