Sony to Tap Hon Hai, Qisda to Build LCD TVs

Sony is tapping into Taiwan-based Hon Hai Precision Industry (Foxconn) and Qisda Corporation to manufacture LCD TVs. This is the first time that Foxconn and Qisda will be assembling LCD TVs for Sony. Qisda is the manufacturing arm of BenQ. Foxconn will be building Sony’s 32″ and 37″ LCD TVs while Qisda will be making slightly larger and upscale ones. Wistron is the other Taiwanese contract manufacture Sony will be using in 2008 to build up to 4 million LCD TVs.

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Merck: Dominant Liquid Crystal Supplier

According to Walter Zywottek, head of Merck’s chemicals business, Merck’s Japanese competitors have not made substantial enough investments to have a major impact on the company’s liquid crystal business. Zywottek also forecasted that LCs prices will stabilize as flat panel display TVs has largely shifted toward LCD technology instead of plasma.

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Samsung 16″ 1080p LCD for Notebook PCs

Samsung Electronics is bring CE to IT with a new 16″ LCD geared for notebook PC applications. The 16″ will have a 16:9 aspect ratio, instead of the standard 16:10. And that means the pixel format will be 1920 x 1080 rather than 1920 x 1200. When watching 1080p content the notebook will not need to scale and nor will you see top and bottom black bars when viewing 1:1. Targeted to consumers? Absolutely.

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CMO 52″ LCD TV Panel in First Quarter 2007

Note: It is already the second quarter of 2007 and towards the end of it. So this blog post is from a long long time ago… I’m more interested in the iPhone than anything else as of now, especially because it debuts on my birthday! Anyone feeling the need to give? Let me know! Anyway, here is the post on CMO’s 52″. We all know that 52″ is the next big size after 40″/42″ and 46″/47″. 

Chi Mei Optoelectronic’s (CMO) 52″ LCD TV will sport a Full HD resolution of 1920 x 1080, a brightness of 500 cd/m2, a contrast ratio of 1500:1, and a 6ms response time. The 52″ monster will be built on CMO’s G5.5 LCD fab that can cut two 52″ panels at a time. A G5.5 is more optimized for larger LCD monitors such as the newly introduced 19″ wide and 22″ wide monitors. With a monthly capacity of its G5.5 plant at 120,000 glass substrate input going up to 180,000 by December, you can bet CMO will be churning out a lot of 52″ LCD TVs to make a lot of profits. If you want to have a look at the 52″ LCD TV from CMO, hop on over to FPD International 2006 that will be held from October 18 - 20 in Yokohama, Japan.

But let’s not get too excited here: We’ve already seen a 100″ LCD prototype (and I really mean prototype) from LG.Philips LCD (LPL) at SID 2006 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco this year. Also, Sharp is already shipping a 65″ LCD TV, which I saw at a Magnolia store in Palo Alto, California. And don’t forget Samsung’s 82″ prototype.

Source: DigiTimes

CMO: LED LCD Monitor Panels

According to DigiTimes, Chi Mei Optoelectronics (CMO) is shipping LED-based 19″ LCD monitor panels to Acer and 22″ LED-based panels to ViewSonic. CMO currently ships LED-based 12.1″, 13.3″, 14.1″ notebook panels, and 17″, 19″ inch LCD monitor panels in small volumes. I am not quite sure what the value of LED backlights are for average-sized LCD monitors. For notebook PCs that require a bit more thinning and a bit more battery power, white LEDs can do the trick, albeit for quite a bit more money. For large LCD monitors and LCD TVs, you can enhance the color gamut, do some cool tricks with the backlight with LED technology (separate RGB LEDs or a single LED package with RGB chips inside), but at a substantial price premium, of course. So, what’s the use for regular 17″ or 19″ LCD monitors? Thinner? Better color gamut for folks that really want that but are only willing to pay $199? I think there’s a mismatch. Ooops. Wait. I know now. It has to do with being green: no mercury, less overall material (thinner), lower power consumption (?), etc. So that’s it: Green.

Source: DigiTimes