It’s no secret that flat panels have made a lot of money for retailers, VARs and distributors in the past few years, certainly far more than high-def DVD. Yet, the news about the skirmishes in the DVD wars got far more attention than the equally decisive battles in display technology at the moment.
Growing video usage, VISTA, and aggressive pricing are skyrocketing sales of wide-format LCD desktop computer monitors over the next five years, making this the dominant format by 2009, iSuppli Corp. predicts.
Worldwide sales of wide-format LCD monitors will grow to 146.9 million units by 2011, rising at a “whopping” CAGR of 74.3% from only 9.1 million units in 2006, says iSuppli, a market research company not prone to overusing the word “whopping” in their releases.
On the side of LCD TV, they have supplanted cathode-ray and compete with flat panel plasma in the home theater market.
Like any war, behind the gunfire is an intricate web of political and commercial alliances, joint ventures, consolidation, and outright surrender.
Let’s start with the short but action-packed story of plasma, once the leading hopeful in display technology. Instead LCD kicked plasma butt (by increasing quality, size while decreasing price faster) and the industry started writing off plasma. Many makers like Philips jumped off, leaving the ones standing to form a survival group known as the Plasma Display Coalition (members are Hitachi, LG Electronics, Panasonic and Pioneer).
Just as many thought they could write off plasma, last year PDP made a come-back and the strong support of Panasonic (showing its first 150 inch in Europe) puts plasma as a solid alternative in some applications. Then last month stalwart Pioneer said it will stop production of 42-inch and smaller panels and buy instead from Matsushita or Hitachi.
If that saga in plasma isn’t enough to hold the attention of partners trying to follow vendor machinations, try the LCD side of the flat panel battles.
Sony, for example, cut a deal to joint venture a state-of-the-art LCD panel production line with competitor Samsung. For understanding the scale of market impact, imagine HP and Dell doing that in PC production.
Then last month Sony cut another deal to buy into another competitor’s new 10th gen LCD factory (Sharp). While some are trying to paint Sony as back-stabbing Samsung, it seems like Sony simply is doubling down its bets. Or tripling its bets: Sony is investing heavily in its own OLED technology that some say may replace LCD in about 2015.
Meanwhile, Sharp has slapped Samsung with a patent lawsuit. Philips has sold out of its partnership with LG Philips Display so LG gets to re-brand. Toshiba recently forged an alliance with Sharp to procure LCD panels of 32-inches (while Sharp in turn agrees to buy from Toshiba some of the chips used in its TVs).
Because of that new alliance, Toshiba has to sell its shares in IPS Alpha Technology, an LCD production joint venture with Hitachi and Panasonic. Hitachi is also planning to leave the venture, selling shares to Canon who may want to buy the whole company.
All this is about the last six months. Whew!
Change the names, dress the players up as socialites and you have the right script for a prime time soap opera. Get the picture?
