Crave

Rear-projection is only popular in really big screen sizes.

(Credit: CNET)

A press release describing a new report (PDF) says that rear-projection HDTVs, including DLP-based microdisplays, now serve only a niche market of people who want 60-inch or larger televisions. The report by Quixel research shows that in the second quarter of this year, the 60-inch and larger screen sizes accounted for 86 percent of sales of all rear-projection HDTVs; up from 32 percent in 2007. The firm's spokesman says that the reason has to do value. "The market has changed and there is no value for 42-inch, 46-inch, and 50-inch MD RPTVs, but there is great value in the screen sizes above 60 inch," said Tamaryn Pratt, Quixel Research principal.

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In a time when CNET's two top-rated HDTVs of the year are Panasonic's TH-50PZ800U and Pioneer's PDP-5020FD, we have to wonder why a salesperson would recommend flat-panel LCD HDTVs at the rate that J.D. Power and Associates claims in a recent report.

Pioneer's Kuro PDP-5020FD, one of our top plasma HDTVs

(Credit: CNET Networks)

The report, which surveyed more than 2,000 shoppers on their experience in big-box electronic retailers, a specialty television retailer, a mass merchant, and a warehouse store, found that retail salespeople recommended LCDs over plasmas at a three-to-one rate.

Sure, plasmas have a long list of supposed failings: they're allegedly bulky and power hungry, and have image burn-in issues and leaks, and a short lifespan. However, most of these problems--image burn-in being the most common with early plasma sets--have been resolved on modern plasma displays.

According to the report, however, "37 percent of salespersons warned their customers that images may be permanently burned onto the screen of plasma TVs." The lifespan argument doesn't hold up either, as both LCD and plasma lifespan claims are basically the same now at 60,000 hours each. And, with LCDs still costing more at equivalent screen sizes, it's certainly convenient for retailers to promote the LCD technology over its less expensive rival.... Read more

As desktop PCs fall further out of favor in the U.S., peripheral manufacturers are having no problem picking up the slack elsewhere.

China is poised to pass the United States in just three years to become the second-largest market for flat-panel monitors, according to a report released Tuesday by DisplaySearch. DisplaySearch is a market research company that tracks the display business.

(Credit: ViewSonic)

The EMEA region (which refers to Europe, the Middle East, and Africa) will continue to provide LCD monitor makers the most lucrative market, with just over 30 percent of all shipments heading there by 2011. Greater China will represent 22 percent of the worldwide monitor market, with the U.S. slipping to just under 18 percent of the market, according to DisplaySearch's latest Quarterly Desktop Monitor Shipment and Forecast Report. Asia Pacific follows at 15.6 percent, and Latin America at 12.2 percent.

The display business generated $107 billion last year, which includes LCD TVs, monitors, and notebook displays. Though monitors are the second-most profitable LCD application, they're actually the most popular in terms of number of units sold worldwide.

The desktop monitor market is driven largely by commercial purchases, as opposed to those by consumers. The U.S. is a mature market, and the upgrade process of switching to newer crops of LCD monitors is slower here than in a market such as China, where many businesses purchasing monitors over the next few years will be doing so for the first time.

The flat-panel TV industry is coming of age in the U.S. at a less-than-desirable time.

As energy costs, food prices, and mortgage defaults are on the rise, the first things to go for many consumers are luxury buys. Tightening one's budget can mean ruling out the purchase of a larger TV.

Vizio will face stiffer competition this year.

So what's an industry to do?

Give consumers more lower-priced options, according to Paul Gagnon, who monitors the television industry for DisplaySearch. He expects the top-tier TV brands (Samsung, Sony, Sharp, Panasonic, et al) to move in this direction, since TVs in smaller sizes and ones with fewer bells and whistles are going to be a lot more attractive during tougher economic times.

The current economic environment "puts pressure on brands to occupy that middle ground," Gagnon said. "It makes the focal point in the second half of the year on more aggressive price point products, like 32-inch LCD and plasma." LG put out the first 32-inch plasma last year.

Basically, if you shop for a television at Wal-Mart Stores, Circuit City, or Best Buy, your best bet is going to be on newer, smaller sizes because that's where much of the price competition between brands will be. And when TV vendors fight, we all win.

And though the top TV guys are going to be squabbling with each other over consumer dollars and jostling for position on store shelves in the next couple months, they'll at least be united in one purpose: attempting to take down Vizio. The upstart TV maker experienced unbridled success last year selling mainly through club stores and significantly undercutting the top-tier brands on price.

Everyone is gunning for Vizio--it's apparent in both the price competition, and in the snide remarks and left-handed compliments the marketing execs of the traditional top brands make at TV industry conferences. But Vizio isn't alone. Syntax-Brillian (under the Olevia brand) and Westinghouse are also making inroads into territory occupied by the top names in electronics.

"As flat panel transitions to a mainstream, mature category, big brands are looking at more entry-level markets," said Gagnon. "Sony, Samsung are certainly going to try to play head to head with Vizio on their turf. Price points will get pretty aggressive."

Sony actually started this a year ago, when it launched a specific line of TVs for Target and Wal-Mart. The experiment has gone well, as Sony has already said it's expanding the number of models it will sell through those channels this year.

The average price difference on similar models and screen size between Vizio and the mainstream brands was $200 last year, according to DisplaySearch. Competitors will try to narrow that price advantage to $100 this year, and cross their fingers that having a brand name will help them recapture market share.

If you've been eagerly awaiting the opportunity to own the thinnest flat-panel LCD TV, now's your chance.

Hitachi's 1.5 LCDs are just that thick.

(Credit: Hitachi)

Though already available in Asia, the 1.5-inch-thick TVs from Hitachi are now available in the U.S. The sets come in three different screen sizes, 32 inches, 37 inches, and 42 inches.

One of the secrets, by the way, of how Hitachi managed to slim down the TVs so much is that they took out the ATSC tuner. And although it is definitely the thinnest LCD TV, it's downright bloated when compared to Sony's impossibly thin OLED TV, which measures a mere 3 millimeters thick.

See my colleague David Katzmaier's take on the latest TV from Hitachi here.

Panasonic has been tapped to pinch-hit for Pioneer.

The two television makers said Wednesday they had come to an agreement in which Panasonic will produce the panels for Pioneer's plasma televisions.

(Credit: Pioneer)

The news comes a month after reports surfaced that Pioneer was pulling out of the plasma business. When Pioneer confirmed it would be finding someone who could make the panels more inexpensively than it could, there was a sense of dismay and disappointment among fans of its Kuro technology. Pioneer plasma TVs are generally regarded by experts--including CNET Reviews' David Katzmaier--as having the blackest black levels of any TV on the market.

In a joint statement, the two companies said they will build a new type of panel that integrates Pioneer's Kuro technology and Panasonic's NeoPDP, which it currently uses in its Viera TVs. Panasonic will have the panels sporting the new, combined technology ready for Pioneer by the second half of 2009.

Panasonic is the largest producer of plasma TVs, so the panels should be more affordable for Pioneer, which is trying to cut costs. Neither has said how much the panels will cost.

Pioneer plans to let someone else make its plasma TV panels, according to several reports.

Reuters reported Tuesday that the company will cease production of its own plasma panels because that portion of its business continues to lose money. The company will still sell plasma sets, but plans to get its plasma panels from Matsushita, parent company of Panasonic, the Nikkei business daily reported. Panasonic is the biggest plasma TV vendor in the world, shipping nearly 40 percent of all plasma displays, while Pioneer ranks fifth, shipping just over 6 percent of plasmas worldwide in the fourth quarter of 2007, according to DisplaySearch.

(Credit: Pioneer)

So far, Pioneer isn't confirming or denying the reports ("Our headquarters are planning to publicly discuss our TV strategy at the end of this week, so we'll have no information until then," said a spokesperson), but it doesn't look good.

As CNET colleague and resident TV expert David Katzmaier put it, this news amounts to "a black day for black levels."

Pioneer has been repositioning its plasma business over the last few years as a premium brand, most recently pushing its "Kuro" technology, which emphasizes deep black levels and contrast, at CES 2007 and 2008. CNET Reviews ranked the 50-inch plasma from Pioneer as "the best it's ever tested" last year.

Though it appears Pioneer will continue to sell plasmas sets, if it's not making the panels, it seems unlikely that it will prolong the life of its Kuro technology. Pioneer is, however, already planning to buy liquid crystal display panels from Sharp in order to start selling LCD TVs. LCD sets have quickly become the fastest-growing TV technology, displacing traditional cathode-ray tube sets, as well as rear-projection and plasma.

Sony is suddenly in unfamiliar territory. And that's not a bad thing.

The consumer electronics company, which has long put a premium on quality over TV volumes, was the leader in LCD televisions shipped in North America during the fourth quarter. At an almost 13 percent unit share, it's a fairly dramatic leap for the company, which jumped from fourth place to first in the space of one quarter.

(Credit: Vizio)

Sony entered the last year with caution, saying that flat-panel TV prices were dropping too fast, but ended on a decidedly different note.

Sony Electronics President Stan Glasgow seemed to have seen this one coming. Back in November he told CNET News.com that judging by the orders the company had taken, "it could be the best holiday season in the last couple of years."

Display Search analyst Paul Gagnon said it wasn't any particular pricing scheme that pushed Sony into the lead, but rather that the company was able to provide exactly what big-box retailers wanted to sell. "They pushed big screen sizes, 1080p (resolution), and high-value, high-margin products," Gagnon said.

Sony seemed to recognize early in 2007 that something needed to change and altered its traditional strategy, coming out with some less expensive TVs for Wal-Mart and Target stores. To get these TVs to the price points they wanted, Sony bought off-the-shelf components from third-party suppliers.

After Sony, Samsung shipped 12.3 percent of all TVs, followed by Vizio with 10.7 percent, Sharp with 8.4 percent, and Polaroid with 8.1 percent.

An industry stalwart taking hold of the LCD marketplace again signals yet another shift in a market that's showing itself to be hard to predict. In August, upstart brand Vizio shocked its competitors by earning the No. 1 crown in units shipped to retailers. Vizio has since dropped to third place in unit share, but its overall market share remained steady.

"It's not like they lost ground," Gagnon said. "We've just seen a much stronger reaction from top-tier guys, Sony and Samsung, who were surprised by the upstart. They reacted with aggressive promotions, heading off Vizio at certain screen sizes. But by no means is Vizio falling."

Former leader Sharp failed to maintain previous strong growth during the last quarter of the year and fell to fourth place with 8.4 percent of all TV models shipped to retailers.

With talk of an impending economic recession, it's quite possible that consumers are going to be spending less on luxury goods like high-definition televisions, but that shouldn't have too much of an effect on the TV manufacturers, according to Gagnon.

"Maybe there won't be quite as many super-big-screen sales 40 and larger (as) we expected, but I wouldn't expect a real dramatic shift. Consumer demand has been exceeding supply for quite a while," he said.

The demand has so outweighed LCD manufacturers' ability to produce enough panels for TV makers that vendors are beginning to turn to computer monitor manufacturers to fill in the gap. Next year there will likely be an influx of more 19-inch and 22-inch wide-screen televisions, Gagnon predicts, as monitor panel makers rise to meet the demand for TVs.

Hitachi's sexy new flat screens.

(Credit: Hitachi Japan)

At a press conference in Tokyo on Tuesday, Hitachi unveiled its new "Ultra Thin" LCD TVs, a new line of flat-panel sets that measure only 35 millimeters (1.5 inches) in thickness. While other companies have also announced uberskinny flat-panel TVs recently--some even thinner than Hitachi's--the Ultra Thin (or UT) LCD line is the first to actually hit the market.

"Our focus for the last few years in the flat-panel business has been on the plasma side, but we've been working very diligently on the LCD side," Kevin Sullivan, Hitachi's chief strategy officer and senior vice president of sales, said in a conference call with the U.S. press.

Three models of the Ultra Thin LCD TVs, all with 6-watt speakers built into the base, are being manufactured: the smallest is a 32-inch model with 1366x768-pixel resolution, and two higher-end models (one 37", and one 42") with 1920x1080-pixel resolution.

The televisions will be available in Japan, where the line is known as the "Wooo," starting in mid-December with the 32-inch model. In the United States, the 32-inch model will hit stores in the first quarter of 2008, with the larger TVs coming in the second quarter. The Japanese versions will have a variety of color choices (black, white, and limited-edition blue and red for the 32-inch model) but it does not appear that the color variations will be coming stateside.

Pricing for the U.S. market has not yet been announced, but don't expect anything cheap. With the ultrathin TVs, Hitachi is targeting "a highly affluent consumer," said Daniel Lee, vice president of marketing. "This person or this family is going to seek luxury, prestige (and) style." He added, "Our marketing theme was 'accessible luxury' in '07. We're going to be moving into that 'pure luxury' category in '08."