We've had a feeling Philips wasn't really in love with the TV market lately, and now word comes from the New York Times that it will no longer manufacture displays for North America. The name -- and apparently the high concept Ambilight designs -- will still be on shelves, courtesy of a five year deal branding Funai-built televisions (already the name behind Emerson, Sylania, Symphonic and others.) Seeking -- like every other manufacturer lately -- to reduce risk and focus on its patents Philips will still design and manufacture TVs outside N.A., as well as oversee U.S. marketing, while Funai takes over all other operations Stateside beginning September 1.

Update: Philips let us know Ambilight remains dead and buried, but its 2008 models will continue as planned.

LG.Display, née LG.Philips, will soon have a little less Philips in it, after the Netherlands portion of the collaboration sells off about 23 million shares (valued at $1 billion). Why Philips is distancing itself (dropping from an original 44.6% share of the company to 19.9% before this sale) from what at least seemed to be a good LCD operation once upon a time -- especially when everyone else is looking for a teammate -- is less clear, but maybe it just wants to help Toshiba out with a few bills. [Warning: subscription req'd]

Not even two months after Syntax-Brillian announced that it would be acquiring at least 700,000 LCD panels from Sharp during 2008, along comes word that the firm will also be on the receiving end of a similar deal with LG.Philips -- er, LG Display, we should say. Nomenclature aside, the agreement between the two asserts that LG.Philips (or whatever it becomes) will supply Syntax-Brillian "with a minimum of 750,000 LCD panels during 2008," though it's certainly not the first deal of its kind. More specifically, it'll provide 32-, 37-, 42- and 47-inch Full HD units, and the option to purchase additional inventory remains alive. So much teamwork in the LCD industry -- those other sectors could stand to learn a thing or two.

We never were intensely fond of that little dot taking the place of a space between "LG" and "Philips" anyway, but apparently, someone higher up has an even bigger problem with it. All joshing aside, LG.Philips will soon sport a little less Philips and a lot more LG as the South Korean flat-panel maker renames itself to LG Display Co Ltd. Granted, the alteration still has to be approved at its annual shareholder meeting on February 29th, but considering that Philips cut its stake in the venture to 19.9-percent recently, we reckon it'll pass with flying colors.

LG.Philips ain't screwing around this CES, bringing the pain on rival Sharp with five interesting new panels. Check it out:

• 52-inch multi-touch LCD - full 1080p, two touch detection
• 84-inch multi-touch LCD - 2 x 4 array of 42-inch panels, totaling full 1080p resolution, 500cd/m2 brightness
• 47-inch triple-view LCD - full 1080p, 250cd/m2 brightness, three separate images (much like Sharp's triple view), photo after the break
  
• 47-inch double sided LCD - 70mm thickness, 500cd/m2 brightness, displays images on both sides
• 42-inch transflective LCD - the 1,500cd/m2 brightness is nice, but damn that's large for a transflective display.

Kind of goes without saying, but these aren't TV sets ready for sale or anything -- these are panels produced for OEMs to build into their gear, more than likely industrial and commercial type getups. Still, hot.

Although we're sure clever consumers could put a 20.8-inch QXGA (2,048 x 1,536) display to good use, LG.Philips' latest is aimed squarely at the medical market. Deemed the "highest resolution panel of its size," this unit also touts a 600 candela brightness and In-Plane Switching (IPS) technology that enables doctors, nurses and curious onlookers to see imagery in exceptional detail. The panel isn't set to enter mass production until the first half of next year, but those hanging out at FPD International in Japan can reportedly catch it on display right now.

[Via FarEastGizmos]

LG.Philips just announced an "ultra-slim" 42-inch Full HD 120Hz panel for 2008. Not Q4 2008 either kids, we're talking sometime before March. So what can we expect after Sharp's 1.1-inch thin 52-inch panel and Hitachi's 0.74-inch 32-incher? Something in between right? Nope, 7.8-inches thick. Exactly, 19.8-mm or just 0.78-inches thin. According to LG.Philips, that makes it 40% thinner and 10% lighter than conventional LCD TVs which is pretty hot. It'll be CCFL backlit (not LED) though when it does hit -- that'll keep the cost down but won't do much for the contrast. The panel will be on display at FPD International in Yokohama next week where we hope to bring you a first look.

Update: Ooops, major metric conversion snafu -- good thing we're not in charge of the Mars space program. It's fracking thin!

[Via DigiTimes]

We know that many consumers like their flat panels big and cheap even at the expense of quality. No doubt then, Vizio's new "full-HD" 52-inch LCD rumored to sell at Costco next month will be a hit. The $2,200 sets are even said to carry an LG.Philips panel according to DigiTimes' Taiwanese supply chain sources. Promising, but will they bring LED backlighting, 120Hz tech, and 1080p24 HDMI input? Doubtful, but the money you save should keep the fridge swollen with Bud into the foreseeable future.

You've already seen Samsung's new LED-backlit LCDs for 2007, now check what cross-K-town rival LG.Philips has in store. Last week's ICDL 2007 had LG.Philips demonstrating their 47-, 26-, 15.4-, 12.1-, 8-, and 7-inch LED backlit LCD panels. The big daddy 47-inch panel appears to be the guts of the LG HDTV we heard rumors about. And just like we heard, this panel brings a Full HD 1920 x 1080 resolution and a "Mega CS" 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio for truly black, black-levels obtained though a process of local dimming. It's listed with a 500cd/m2 brightness, 178-degree viewing angle, 8-ms response, and 1.07 billion colors covering 105% of the NTSC color gamut. No word on release so we'll have to cling to the original "as early as Q2" hearsay for now. Meanwhile, the 26-inch panel brings a 1366 x 728 pixel resolution, 540cd/m2 brightness, 18,000:1 contrast ratio, 178-degree viewing angle, and covers a hot 136% of the NTSC color gamut. The 15.4-inch and 12.1-inch LED-backlit LCDs are destined for laptops. The 15.4-inch panel matches the equivalent LED-backlit Samsung panel spec-for-spec only it comes in a bit dimmer at 300cd/m2 vs. Sammy's 330cd/m2. The 12.1-inch panel measures just 3.15-mm thin yet packs a respectable 1280 x 800 resolution, 400:1 contrast, 250cd/m2 brightness, and 16-ms response. The 20-mm thick 7-inch panel and 16-mm thick 8-inch panel are destined for navigation devices offering both a wide temperature range of operation and high-brightness. Great, nice to see LG, now please get that 47-incher onto the shelves with your 120Hz TrueMotion technology mkay? Oh, and less than $2k... pretty please, with sugar?

Read -- 47-inch
Read -- 26-inch
Read -- 15.4-inch
Read -- 12.1-inch
Read -- 8-inch
Read -- 7-inch

Matsushita, maker of Panasonic-brand products, and Hitachi are part of IPS Alpha Technology who together with LG.Philips have plans to dominate the world LCD landscape. These Japanese electronic giants are going to double their LCD output. LCDs, you know, have had a great first part of the year and these companies are not going to be left behind. Panasonic has been focusing solely on plasmas for some time now and has recognized the world-wide growth in LCDs. Once the production lines are up and running at full steam, they should be able to produce 4.5 million LCD panels a year, up from 2.5 million on the current lines.

What's that old saying? If you fail once, try, try again. Sony must have that in mind after failing to sell as many LCDs in Europe as they said they would. So what do they do? They say they are going to increase their market share by a whopping 20% over there. Sony recently shot their worldwide LCD market share past Samsung, LG.Philips and Sharp to claim the number one spot, so this might not be out of the question after all. Hey, more competition for them means a better price for us.

This is going to be the year of flat panel TVs. Everyone, from Samsung to Sharp to Hitachi, have stepped up and raised their output capacity of their plasmas and LCDs.

Last year, LG.Philips dominated the LCD landscape with their joint venture but there are some new kids in town that may change that and they are not small name companies. IPS Alpha Technology Ltd. is a joint venture between Panasonic, Hitachi and Toshiba that was started last year in order to jointly produce LCD panels. The original plans was just bumped up in light of the LCD demand.

The initial plan called for production to start between July and September 2006 but this has been moved up to May and will be at full capacity by April of next year instead of March of 2009.

Can you see the writing on the wall? Tube TVs are going to be non-existent in a matter of years with this scale of LCD production.

Sorry Samsung, but there's a new king and his name is LG.Philips. The former number one LCD panel maker was dethroned by LG.Philips as the largest LCD manufacturer in the world. The market shares for all panels ten inches and above top out at 21.5% globally for LG.Philips, while Samsung captured 20.9% in 2005.  The new champ is betting heavily on increased HDTV adoption in the LCD segment; sounds like a safe bet to us, at least until those new-fangled SED sets hit the shelves before the year end.

We're fairly certain that the LG 102-inch PDP has nothing to do with soaring LG.Philips profits; after all, who's got six-figures to drop on a wall of 1080p perfection? No, LG.Philips must be selling the smaller LCD sets, and plenty of 'em if the financials are in order. LG.Philips exceeded analyst expectations with a net profit of 328 billion won ($333.2 million) for the last quarter of '05, which compares to 35.4 billion won a year earlier. Hm, almost a ten-fold increase; that's bigger than the screen size increase from 42- to 103-inches. Could the ambilight technology be shedding some light on the profits?