Tube TVs did best weathering an overall decline in television sales during the first quarter, largely due to a softening economy and a lower price point than their plasma display panel and liquid crystal display TV competitors.
Total North America TV shipments declined 34 percent in the first quarter over the previous quarter, according to recently released results from
But in comparison, shipments of the old CRT (cathode ray tube) TVs slipped only 14 percent in the quarter, the study found.
"We were initially surprised by what we saw. But when we thought about it a little more, it made sense," said Paul Gagnon, director of DisplaySearch's North America TV research. "Consumer spending is down, but people still need to shop for a digital TV, because of the regulatory changes that are coming. And when they shop for an LCD TV, even a small one, they find they're quite a bit more than a CRT and they can't afford a LCD."
Come February, the nation will be transitioning to digital broadcasting. As a result, consumers who own an analog-only TV will need to use a converter box after February 17, or own a television with a digital tuner.
But in searching for a replacement TV, consumers will find the price divide between a CRT and LCD is wide. For example, a 20-inch CRT carries an average selling price of $155, whereas a 19-inch LCD can cost an average of $376, according to DisplaySearch.
"In tight times, when money is scare but you have to buy a new TV, CRT sales will do well," Gagnon said.
During the first quarter, CRT regained its No. 2 position in the North America TV market, representing a 12 percent slice of the overall pie. LCD TVs, as usual, carried the largest slice with 77 percent market share, while plasma's brief flirtation with the No. 2 spot in the fourth quarter fell by the wayside in the first quarter with 9 percent of the market, according to DisplaySearch.
Given economic predictions are calling for continued sluggishness through the third quarter, CRT sales will likely perform better than expected during this time, he added.
That should bode well for major retailers that bill themselves as discounters, such as Wal-Mart and Target, which are a few of the places that carry the older technology CRT sets. Other major retailers carry mainly plasma and LCD TVs.
Sony appeared to be on the verge of starting the next revolution in TV technology last year when it introduced its first OLED television, most notable for its paper-thin screen. The display, which uses bright and low-power organic light-emitting diodes, appeared so promising that the prospects for LCD and plasma TVs were soon called into question.
(Credit:
Sony)
A new study, however, may cast that future in a different light. A research firm called DisplaySearch tested Sony's XEL-1 TV and found that its brightness began to degrade significantly after 1,000 hours--translating to a loss of half its original quality in 17,000 hours, according to the Associated Press. That projection stands in marked contrast to Sony's claim that the display would last 30,000 hours or 10 years of typical use before reaching that degradation level, which is a standard industry measure.
The company reportedly stands by its claims, and DisplaySearch did acknowledge that longstanding longevity problems with OLED displays have been addressed in the latest versions of the technology. Still, the research follows other reports of production issues that have slowed Sony's development of the OLED TV as a mass-market phenom. And given the high cost of making them, which has produced retail prices of $2,500 for an 11-inch screen, they probably won't be a standard living room fixture anytime soon.
Sony XEL-1 EL TV currently sells in Japan for just under $2,000
(Credit: Sony)There's thin. Then there's paper thin. Sony showed an electroluminescent (EL) display that's print-paper thin at the Display2008 conference in Tokyo.
The Sony EL display is based on organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology that uses electroluminescent organic materials. OLED panels are extremely thin because they don't need backlights. The electroluminescent layer contains a polymer substance that directly converts electricity to light.
The panel shown this week at Diplay2008 is about 0.3mm thick, besting Sony's current 1.4mm-thick EL TV (photo). Epson lists its Premium Glossy Photo Paper as 0.3mm thick. So by this standard the panel is literally paper thin.
Sony also exhibited an 11-inch panel.
The most cutting of cutting-edge technology is always a sticker shocker. Sony currently sells an 11-inch EL TV (960×540) for a staggering 190,000 yen, or just under $2,000. That's right, an 11-inch display. Even smaller than the displays on subnotebooks, which typically come with 12-inch LCDs.
The image quality is stunning, however, producing the best--or close to the best--of all of the following: color, contrast, viewing angles, and refresh rates.
"It has a superhigh contrast ratio (allegedly, 1 million to one), it boasts faster response times than LCD or plasma, it looks incredibly sharp with colors that really pop--and because OLED screens don't require a backlight, they're more energy efficient than plasma or LCD," according to this CNET review.
Another thing: the organic matter used can by ruined by the elements, so special sealing technology is necessary for the displays.
Sony has been making smaller, 3.8-inch OLED displays for gadgets since 2004.
Though CRT monitors have been made practically obsolete for consumers by the LCD industry, a few industries--photography/visual design/filmmaking--still cling to them for their nonpareil color quality.
Hewlett-Packard is trying to loosen their grip on those clunky desktop space-hoggers by offering a liquid crystal display for visual artist types that boasts the ability to show 1 billion colors for "one quarter" of the cost of other LCD monitors in this category.
At the National Association of Broadcasters show in Las Vegas on Monday, Todd Bradley, vice president of HP's Personal Systems Group, announced that HP has teamed up with DreamWorks for a technology it calls DreamColor.
It will offer 30-bit color using LED-backlighting technology on a widescreen display that will work with a Mac or PC--not just HP products. The displays are intended to keep colors consistent throughout the creative process: from a display on a workstation to film and/or to print. Printers with DreamColor technology were introduced last year.
HP says it's only a "preview" announcement, which means it's not announcing pricing yet. The displays are scheduled to start shipping this summer.
An Apple rumor a day keeps a slow news day away. Right? Though idle chit chat about tech's most gossiped-about company pops up all the time, they tend to be quashed or talked to death before another one comes along that's juicier. One recent rumor is still floating around the Web.
Sometimes the rumors are generated by simply making logical leaps, as in Wednesday's Apple-will-use-Atom-processors yarn, which my colleague Tom Krazit flatly dismisses. Other times, they're based on rumors overheard in Asia, like last week when Gartner's Ken Dulaney said he heard that Apple has ordered 10 million 3G iPhone units that will carry AMOLED (active matrix organic light-emitting diode) displays. Using those screens would allow Apple to make thinner phones that consume less power.
Gadget blog Gizmodo took exception to Dulaney's prediction, writing that OLED displays are too expensive, not as good as LCD screens in direct sunlight, and that Apple won't use an unproven technology.
That was last week. Now DisplaySearch is weighing in. Analyst Barry Young, who follows the AMOLED industry, says both are wrong--kind of.
Young points out that Samsung SDI is the only mass producer of AMOLEDs, and their maximum output is around 4 million units, which doesn't jive with the 10 million figure Dulaney gives. But he also disagrees with Gizmodo's assessment of AMOLEDs' performance, and points out that Apple has no problem using higher-end components and that the costs are already coming down since LG, Samsung, iRiver, Sharp, Sony Ericsson, and others are already incorporating the technology into their handheld devices.
So while neither is completely right, Young says that he knows Apple and Samsung SDI are at least talking to each other, so if anything, Dulaney may have just jumped the gun a bit. But it seems like this rumor just won't go away.
Bottom line, Apple is secretive. Until then, we can only speculate.
SAN DIEGO--Steve Jobs said people "don't read anymore."
Karl McGoldrick hopes the visionary Apple CEO is actually wrong for once.
That's because McGoldrick is the CEO of Netherlands-based Polymer Vision, the only company that right now is working on making e-books in a form that's actually close to traditional books--ones that are mobile, bendable, and, above all, readable.
But the device, called Readius, is not just an e-book reader--it receives e-mail, text messages, and RSS feeds, makes phone calls, and keeps calendar and contact information--in addition to downloading books and newspapers wirelessly.
Readius uses e-ink to display text on its 5-inch foldout screen.
(Credit: Erica Ogg/CNET News.com)It caused quite the stir at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this year, when gadget blogs aplenty (including CNET) were able to get their hands on the prototype for the first time. But McGoldrick wants to move beyond gadget lovers and early adopters and make his company's vision work for mainstream buyers everywhere.
The problem that every mobile device maker runs into is essentially this: How can you balance the size of the screen so it's big enough to read and reasonably watch videos, while keeping the device dainty enough to fit in a pocket?
Although the entire industry has been on the hunt for the ultimate tiny all-in-one mobile device, that has yet to happen. The key, McGoldrick said, is not in the extra features a particular phone may boast, but the screen. In trying to combine consumer uses like watching videos, reading e-mail and books, and using productivity applications for the office, "that's where the display becomes deciding factor," he said.
"The mobile industry is evolutionary. (Manufacturers) keep adding bits and pieces to make the Swiss Army knife of mobile phones. They compete over the number of megapixels of the camera, and (amount of) memory. But in reality, the form factor was stuck," McGoldrick said in an interview here Tuesday at this week's U.S. Flat Panel Display Conference.
Outside of candybar, slider, and clamshell style phones, the "display was limited. So Apple took away the keyboard everyone was used to." But even with the iPhone's industry-leading 3.5-inch display, "that extended the industry to the absolute limit," McGoldrick said. Any bigger than that, and you're not toting around a sleek smartphone anymore; you're somewhere in the murky no-man's land of the ultramobile PC.
Polymer Vision's vision, which it came up with three years ago (as a business spun out from Philips Research), is finally coming to fruition. The Readius is the size of most small mobile phones, but has a 5-inch screen that folds up to close.
It uses E-ink, the same technology used in the Sony Reader and Amazon.com's Kindle, but Polymer Vision worked with E-Ink to come up with a thinner version of the technology so it would roll better. In addition, the Readius uses organic semiconductors in the layer underneath the E-ink that process transistors at very low temperatures so there's no need for glass backing to keep the heat away, like an LCD panel. Also, the organic semiconductor layer is malleable, which allows it to bend when folded, and not break.
Right now, the device is on track for release sometime this summer, though no price has been determined yet. Polymer Vision is still negotiating with mobile carriers and retailers that will sell the Readius to consumers in Europe, North America, and some markets in Asia.
But lest you agree with Jobs that e-books aren't anticipating what customers actually want to do with mobile devices, Polymer Vision has grander plans than just books for its technology. Internally, the company calls it the "dream machine"--a device that folds like an actual book and reveals an 8-inch color screen that automatically gets all the mobile content you want wirelessly.
"In four to five years, you can do video on a mobile roll-able device," McGoldrick said. There are mobile devices on the market right now that allow for watching video, and in some countries, broadcast television. "But the reality is, who wants to watch TV on that small display?" he asked. McGoldrick said that it's not pricing, or network quality, that's keeping portable video displays down--it's the size of the screen.
"It's like trying to push an elephant through a keyhole. If the keyhole gets bigger, the elephant gets through," he said.
Update:This blog has been corrected to reflect that the total flat-panel display business value represents global sales.
SAN DIEGO--This year could be a turning point for the flat-panel TV industry, as it decides how it will face the dual threats of market saturation and rapidly declining prices.
The total flat-panel display business in the worldwide in 2007 was $102 billion, up from $11 billion in 1998, according to DisplaySearch. And while that growth is encouraging, it's not necessarily good news for all sectors of the market.
One of the success stories is the rise of LCD (liquid crystal display) televisions, which finally overtook CRT (cathode ray tube) TVs in units shipped in 2007 for the first time ever. Other good news for the industry: the prices of the actual panels coming out of the factories owned by Sharp, Samsung, and others, were actually up last year, something that hadn't happened since early 2003, according to DisplaySearch. Panel suppliers engineered that by creating a shortage through carefully controlled inventory.
But the picture for the year ahead isn't as rosy for everyone.
Second-tier TV brands like Westinghouse continue to drive down prices for LCD TVs, which is good for consumers, not so good for retailers and other TV makers.
(Credit: Westinghouse)"It's going to be a tough year for (original equipment manufacturers), brands, and retailers," Ross Young, president and founder of DisplaySearch, said here at the U.S. Flat Panel Display conference put on by his firm.
That's principally because the average selling price of flat-panel televisions in retail stores continue to drop, thanks to second- and third-tier TV makers that are driving down prices, as well as the growing power of Wal-Mart Stores and other mass-market retailers in the consumer electronics space.
Wal-Mart in particular is positioning itself as a place to buy traditional top-tier brands, not just cheap imports. It's expanding all consumer electronics offerings in its stores this coming year. Goldman Sachs analyst Matthew Fassler, who follows the CE industry, called it "a well-coordinated set-up" that displays and promotes brands like Samsung and Sony.
"Clearly, there's the beginning of a market-wide shift here, which for specialty retailers, doesn't bode all that well," Fassler said.
Sony first started offering specific models of its LCD TVs to Wal-Mart (and also to Target) midway through 2007 on a limited basis. Last week, Stan Glasgow, president of Sony Electronics in the U.S., told CNET News.com that his company would be expanding the number of TV models in the deal with Wal-Mart by 40 percent.
There seems to be a number of shifts occuring, including one back toward the established brands like Sony, Sharp, and Samsung, and away from the smaller players.
"This could be a shake out year in LCD TV market," DisplaySearch's Young said.
More than others, he added, it will probably help Sony in particular. "They're well positioned in the high end of market, and well positioned to take lots of share. They're making a lot of aggressive moves with OEMs, which makes things more difficult for second and third tiers."
The signs are already pointing that direction. After a poor showing in the first half of 2007, Sony rebounded in a major way in the most recent holiday season and despite its tradition of charging higher prices than its competitors, came away in the fourth quarter of 2007 as the top supplier of LCD TVs.
Display advertising may be only a fraction of Google's advertising business now, but wait until later this year and next, a top Google executive says.
Google will have a "very significant position" in the online display ad market by 2008-2009, Tim Armstrong, Google's North American president for advertising and commerce, said at a Bear Stearns Media Conference in Palm Beach, Fla., on Monday, according to Dow Jones.
His prediction was only strengthened by news on Tuesday that the European Commission approved Google's acquisition of DoubleClick, which is a leader in display advertising.
Eventually, Google's automated ad system will handle search and display ads the same, Armstrong said.
After acknowledging in its most recent earnings call that results from ads on social networks weren't paying off as well as expected, Google is working to fix that problem, he says.
Google has dedicated engineer and salespeople figuring out how to earn more money off ads on social networks and realized that treating social networks like other publisher sites wasn't working. "We now have a very clear path and direction for it," he said.
Meanwhile, YouTube is considered the "brightest light" for display ad potential within Google, according to Armstrong.
Jerry Yang dished out a letter to shareholders on Wednesday and much of the language was similar to that in his e-mail to employees.
But News.com readers who bashed Yang for the absence of CAPITAL LETTERS in his previously posted e-mails should take note that the shareholders have CAPITAL LETTERS in their Yang letter.
In his letter regarding Microsoft's unsolicited bid, Yang states: "I wanted to reach out to you personally to let you know why your board of directors, after a careful review by Yahoo's management along with our financial and legal advisors, believes that Microsoft's proposal substantially undervalues Yahoo and is not in the best interests of our stockholders."
"More importantly, I want you to know that your board is continuously evaluating all of Yahoo's strategic options in the context of the rapidly evolving industry environment, and we remain committed to pursuing initiatives that maximize value for all our stockholders."
Yang goes on to note the company has more than $2 billion in cash, giving it flexibility to execute its game plan for growth, as well a strong brand name and No. 1 ranking in online display advertising.
Psst, Microsoft, taking note of this...
As an apparent consolation to fans who still come out to watch their perennially poor home team, baseball's Kansas City Royals will install the largest high-definition LED (light-emitting diode) screen in the world next year, according to the team.
(Credit:
Daktronics)
Provided by Daktronics, the screen will measure 100 feet by 85 feet, will feature 1,800 lines of resolution, and will be mounted in the outfield and capped with a golden crown, the team symbol.
The installation will take place prior to the beginning of the 2008 season, instantly putting Kansas City's Kauffman Stadium ahead of former screen size world record holders Miami's Dolphin Stadium and University of Texas at Austin's Texas Memorial Stadium. (The 103-feet-by-31-feet display at AT&T Park, home of the San Francisco Giants, is nothing to sneeze at either.)
Just to up the ante a little further, Daktronics will also be decorating Kansas City's left-field fence with a giant HD display for out-of-town scores. The HD video makeover seems to be part of a large-scale renovation at the team's stadium. While that's nice and all, as a baseball fan, I'd prefer management shell out a few extra million on a decent pitching staff and a power hitter over fancy HD replays. But maybe that's just me.
