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DigiTimes: LG Electronics recently announced it plans to start producing LCD TVs at its new production line in Wroclaw, Poland in September.  This is about six months earlier than its original schedule, according to a report from the Korean Herald. The capacity from the new plant will increase to five million units in 2010, up from two million in 2006.

LGE began constructing the line in Wroclaw at the beginning of this year. This is the third production line for the South Korea-based company in Poland. LGE’s Mlawa plant has two production lines for PDP (plasma display panel) TVs and LCD TVs, respectively.

Last week, the South Korea-based company also announced it has completed construction of a Russian plant for flat-panel TVs and home appliances. LGE invested a total of US$150 million (around €118 million) in the 49.5 hectare complex. The facility will produce 500,000 digital TVs (DTVs) annually and the capacity will be doubled to one million units by 2008, according to a company press release.

LGE currently has global production facilities in two South Korean cities, Mexico, the UK, Turkey, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Kazakhstan and Egypt, added the company.

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AME Info: LG Electronics will remain committed to both LCD and plasma television technology, which will continue to dominate the flat screen TV market for years ahead.

Speaking yesterday, LG President and Chief Technology Officer Dr. H.G. Lee said plasma would keep a 15-20% cost advantage over LCD but that LCD would increasingly challenge plasma in the key 42-inch screen market.

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Tech Digest & various sources: It’s the world’s largest consumer electronics show – and it will be open from today until 6th September. Here are some highlights from the manufacturers:

Philips: they’ll be announcing a new Skype VoIP phone, a new Windows XP Media Center for the living room with 250GB hard drive and Blu-Ray (again the product was first shown last year). See www.ifa.philips.com for more.

Pioneer: their latest line-up in Plasma, AV Receivers, DVD players and Sat Nav systems, plus a few surpises.  Expect samples of their Blu-ray player, the BDP-HD1, their new 60-inch Plasma TV – the PDP-607XD and a new HDMI DVD Recorder DVR-940H with huge 500GB hard disk.  See Pioneer’s news release for more.

LG: plan to launch new TVs with built in DVRs (Digital Video Recorders) following the success of the 43-inch plasma model launched in May.  Apparently LG has shifted two million handsets of its ‘hero product’, the chocolate phone, but no news on a successor yet.

Samsung: Among the new products will be the company’s Blu-Ray DVD players which are due to go on sale before the end of the year. Also showing off an LCD TV that uses LEDs as a backlighting source.

Grundig: Now part of the Alba Group, Grundig is showing off a pair of wireless stereo speakers which according to the blurb ‘have the potential to be design icons’.

Thomson: Unveiling a completely wireless (2.4GHz) system for linking up various devices in the home, including DVD player, set top box and TV screen.

Yamaha: The company plans to launch two new Sound Projector models (a single speaker mounted below the TV screen which replaces five or more surround speakers).

Daewoo: An interesting sounding GPS system with built in DMB (Digital Multimedia Broadcasting) system so you can listen to the radio and watch TV whilst navigating.

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Reuters UK: LG Electronics and Sharp Corp. said at IFA (Berlin) yesterday that they expected prices of flat LCD television sets to drop by at least 20-30 percent in 2007 amid overproduction and cost reductions.

“Last year we saw about 30 percent of price reductions for plasma and a little bit more for LCD.  In 2007, we expect about the same,” Young Chan Kim, head of global marketing for LG’s displays division told journalists.

Katsuhiko Machida, president of Sharp, said he expected a fall closer to 20 percent on average for LCD TVs.

Machida said low-resolution TV sets with screen sizes of 40 inches and above might suffer a 30-percent fall in prices.

“But for full-specification, high-resolution sets – due to limited supply compared with demand – we don’t see that big a drop,” he added.

LG reiterated its goal to become the world’s No. 1 display company by 2007. It is currently the second-biggest plasma television producer.

Machida said Sharp expected to regain market share – which it began losing a year ago because it had insufficient capacity to meet demand – from October, when Sharp will start selling LCD TVs made with panels from its new plant in Kameyama, Japan.

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Digital Chosunilbo:  LG Electronics said yesterday that they will be launching a Blu-ray disk writer, the ‘Super Multi Blue’ GBW-H10N, and a desktop PC with Blu-ray drive, the XPION X600.  The company plans to release a player later in the year.

 
The new Super Multi Blue writes at 4 x speed when burning one-time only records, and at 2 x when re-writing. The shipping price is around W900,000 (around €730).

The X600 features a Pentium D processor at 3.4 GHz and Nvidia’s top graphics card, the GeForce 7900GT. Its selling point, though, is that it allows users to enjoy the newest games on Blu-ray disks. The price is W2.9 million (around €1,000), and another W500,000 (around €400) on top of that will get you the 20-inch monitor package.

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AV Zombie: LG will close its LCD monitor production facility in Newport, Wales by the end of the year.  The company blames the falling retail prices and increased competition of LCD computer monitors.

The closure will come with a loss of 315 jobs. It is thought likely that the company will switch production to its operation in Poland.

The factory opened in 1996, and involved an investment of 1.7 billion UK pounds.

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BornRich.org: LG has presented its 100-inch TFT-LCD at the IMID (International Meeting on Information display) in Korea – the largest of it’s kind… this month. 

The mammoth display features a maximum contrast ratio of 3,000:1 and a 180-degree viewing angle.

LG are yet to announce prices and availability.

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AV Zombie: Dutch giant Philips is looking to pull out of its joint venture LCD manufacturing deal with LG.

Volatility of the LCD panel market led Philips to post a huge loss over the last quarter and according to a report in the Wall Street Journal, they are now thought to be seeking a buyer for their stake, worth around 5 billion US dollars.  One possible buyer is Matsushita – parent of Panasonic.

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And here are the best gadgets in Europe – according to the European Imaging and Sound Association (EISA).

EISA is Europe’s biggest multimedia press organisation. The winners are voted by Editors of the top leading speacialist magazines from 19 countries.

The competition is tough. If this were the Olympics (or Eurovision, if you like) of the Electronics Business, the winning companies would be ( based on the number single products awarded first place):

All the winners are here.

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LG Electronics is planning to expand its global line-up of full high-definition LCD televisions by adding two smaller models: 37″ and 42″. LG currently sells 47″ and 55″ LCD TVs with full HD resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels.

Until recently high-def TVs with 1080 lines has only been available on sets with large screens. However as technology improves and prices drop TV set makers are adding it to smaller screen models to stay competitive.

The new full HD models will appear in Europe in the third quarter of 2006. (source: digitalworldtokyo.com)

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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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Phones that aim more at fashionistas rather than technology lovers, it’s getting quite common. Donatella Versace added style to the Nokia 7270. The Siemens SL65 had Escada. LG teamed up with Roberto Cavalli, etc.

Now, Samsung has launched its X820 for the Dutch market. As for now, it’s only available in an exclusive Oger-version. The tailor-made suit brand designed a crocodile cover with suede lining. Prices start at 359 euro. Tiny little detail: it’s the thinnest mobile available in Holland (0,69cm). Plus, it’s got a 2 megapixel camera, Bluetooth, and a music player.

(source: Bright.nl)

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