Teco Electric & Machinery will invest US$20 million in Syntax-Brillian. Teco is an appliance manufacturer based in Taiwan and Syntax-Brillian is a US-based TV manufacturer. With the $20 million, Teco will own 3.5% equity share in Syntax-Brillian. Another stakeholder is Kolin, also Taiwan-based, that holds 7% of Syntax-Brillian. Kolin is the integrator that makes the Olevia-branded LCD TVs for Syntax-Brillian. Syntax-Brillian also has LCoS-based TVs. By pooling resources from three companies, Syntax-Brillian hopes to gain success in the likes of Vizio, a competitor that is also an US-based TV manufacturer.
Vizio is based in Irvine, California and captured 12% unit share of flat panel TVs in Q2’07 making it the top brand in the US according to market research company DisplaySearch. Vizio has been selling TVs only since 2003 mainly through Costco, Sam’s Club, Wal-Mart, Circuit City and Sears. Vizio is not found at Best Buy but its TVs are seeked out due to very low prices. For instance, Vizio offers two 32″ LCD TVs with one that costs $600 and the other for $650. As mentioned before, Vizio’s overhead is low with just 85 employees, mostly in technical support or engineering. Syntax-Brillian will need to be just as lean and competitive to survive.
Some statistics for Syntax-Brillian:
Shipments: 600,000 in 1H’07, 1.2 million goal for 2007
Future products: Digital photo frames
Opinion
Gaining valuable funding by liquidating some of your equity is a time-honored method of continuing and expanding your business. James Li is the CEO of Syntax-Brillian and he is, I’m sure, a very smart person. A competitor, Vizio, has stollen the top spot from Samsung in the US TV market in Q2’07. Like Vizio, Syntax-Brillian is a lean company that moves quickly and focuses on providing high quality products at very competitive prices. Teco also manufactures LCD TVs and sells them under the Teco brand in Taiwan and the three companies can share experiences and know-how to succeed in the TV business.
Source: DigiTimes via Witsview, USA Today
[tags]Teco Electric, Syntax-Brillian, Vizio, LCD TV, CostCo, Sam’s Club, Wal-Mart, Circuit City, Kolin[/tags]
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DigiTimes posted an informative Q&A session with AFT’s chairman and president, Tetsuji Kakimoto. Kakimoto-san revealed a lot of information that I will succinctly summarize below:
Glass Capacity, Plans, Locations
-AFT can supply G10 glass out of Taiwan.
-Large plants: 4 in Taiwan, 3 in Osaka, Japan, 1 in Korea.
-Large plant capacity: 5 million m2 (5-6x Corning‘s plant capacity)
-Small plants: 3 in Yokohama, Japan.
-Backend process lines: 2 G4, 4 G5 (all in Taiwan), 2 G6 (Korea), 1 G7 (Korea), 1 G8 (Japan).
-Taiwan has most complete backend production facility for Asahi.
-Taiwan plants: 4 located in Yunlin Base of the Central Taiwan Science Park (CTSP). 3 of 4 are in volume production. #4 will enter volume production in Q4’07. Plants #1-#2 offer glass substrates with widths of 4.2-4.5m; plants #3-#4 up to 5m in width. #5 in planning stages and location to be either outside of the Yunlin base in Taiwan or Korea and will be decided by the Asahi Group in Japan.
-Plans for new PDP glass plant in Korea.
-No plans for China-based glass furnace.
Financial Investments
-Large furnace investments: NT$5 billion
-Backend line: NT$3 billion
-Total Taiwan investments: NT$50 billion.
Other
-30% of worldwide glass substrate market (includes PDP)
-Environment friendly glasses, free of heavy metals, including arsenic.
Source: DigiTimes via Witsview
[tags]Asahi, Corning, LCD Glass[/tags]
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Sharp shared its vision of the future by showcasing a prototype LCD TV that is superior to current ones. Listed are some unique characteristics:
Size: 52″ LCD TV
Thickness: 20mm-29mm
Contrast Ratio: 100,000:1
Power Consumption: 140kWh/year (based on 4.5 hours of daily viewing)
Color Gamut: 150% NTSC
Weight: 25kg
Opinion
This prototype is very thin for a 52″ LCD TV. Sharp’s current model, LC-52D62U, has a depth of 5″ or 127mm. Contrast 127mm with just 29mm and we’re talking about really thin: about 1/4 – 1/5 the thickness. The contrast ratio is impressive at 100,000:1, but these numbers can be generated with area-focused luminance control (AFLC) or local dimming. AFLC can reduce the light generated from the backlight in dark areas and keep high light output for bright areas resulting in greatly increased contrast ratios. The improved color gamut of 150% NTSC is likely the result of LED backlights but until there are 150% NTSC content, the improve color gamut will likely generate over-saturated images. The LC-52D62U has a weight of 82.7lbs, compared to the prototypes 25kg (or 55lbs): quite a bit lighter, which will be nice if you plan on moving around your 52″ LCD TV. Most likely, lighter models will be a huge cost saver for Sharp due to lower transportation costs. Overall impressive, but nothing revolutionary. The only characteristic of the prototype that I can’t really comment on is the power consumption. What does a typical 52″ LCD TV consume per year based on 4.5 hours of daily viewing?
Source: Sharp
Update 2007.08.31
Engadget has some live shots of the 52″ LCD TV prototype from Sharp and it does seem to be quite thin. I think content is being delivered wirelessly, but that’s just my opinion. Have a look!
[tags]Sharp, LCD TV, Local Dimming, Wide Color Gamut, LED Backlight[/tags]
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Brand: Samsung
Model: Bordeaux (next generation)
Sizes: 32″ and 40″
Pixel Format: 1366 x 768
Contrast Ratio: 1000:1 (8000:1 dynamic)
Brightness: 500 cd/m2
Viewing Angles: 178/178
Response Time: 8ms
Ports: HDMI (2)
Pricing: NT$46,900 (US$1422, 32″), NT$74,900 (US$2271, 40″)
Samsung recently introduced its next-generation Bordeaux LCD TVs in Taiwan and hopes to see about 15,000 to 20,000 in sales this year. These next-generation Bordeaux LCD TVs have been available in the global market since March 2007 and a 46″ model will be released in 1H’08.
Samsung’s newest Bordeaux LCD TV (LN-40F81BD) with 1080p and 120Hz
Opinion
I’m not sure why it took so long for Samsung to introduce LCD TVs that have been available to the global market since March. I know the Bordeaux line of LCD TVs are very popular in Korea. There are a few caveats though. The 8ms response time is not the best that I have seen and without a 120Hz frequency there will most likely be some video blur. The pixel format of 1366 x 768 should be plenty for a long time to come as 1080p content is very hard to come by and in some cases have been shown not to be all that better than 720p. Finally, the price of around $1400 for a 32″ LCD TV seems to be quite high. I would think $999 would be tops in the 32″ category as of now. The $2271 price for the 40″ version is also too high: $1499 would be more inline with pricing trends. Samsung’s own LN-T4061F sports a pixel format of 1920 x 1080 (1080p) and goes for just $1358 via Pricegrabber. I do know that CE prices are generally higher in Asia than in the US but the difference here seems to be substantial.
Source: DigiTimes via Witsview, Samsung Korea
[tags]Samsung, LCD TV, Taiwan, 1920 x 1080, Full HD, 1080p, 120Hz, 1366 x 768[/tags]
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Samsung’s SPD-42S5HD, SPD-42S5HDM, SPD-42P5HD, SPD-42P5HDM PDP TVs are having problems where black/blue lines are covering portion or all of the PDP TVs.
AVING is reporting out of Seoul, South Korea that some Samsung 42″ PDP TV models are breaking down already, only after 2 years of service. One of the main problems that users have reported is the existence of black or blue lines that cover parts, half, or the entire screen and making the PDP TVs useless. Based on the report, there are more than 600 cases inolving the four models mentioned in the title sold between 2005 and 2006. On June 21, 2007, the Korea Consumer Agency officially requested Samsung to recall the four models and repair them at no cost to the consumers. The Korea Consumer Agency is a government organization that was established to protect consumer rights and interests. One interesting thing about Korea is that once you purchase a consumer electronics good there is almost no way you can return it. The problem has not been diagnosed according to AVING’s report. The Korean Consumer Agency is negotiating with Samsung to extend the warranty period to two years for the four failing models. This comes at a time when PDP TVs have been under great competitive threat from LCD TVs.
Source: AVING
[tags]Samsung, Plasma TV, PDP TV, Plasma Display Panel, 42″, Korea Consumer Agency[/tags]
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