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Panasonic and Sumitomo see eye to eye in this OLED game, big screens due in 2010


Ready with the proper retort to all those rumors, false starts and misquotations, the Nikkei is reporting that Panasonic and Sumitomo are zeroed in and have the tunnel vision to deliver the 40-inch plus OLED HDTVs we've been waiting for within fiscal 2010. Once organic electroluminescent product is flooding the streets, the plan is apparently to cut the power requirements of the bright, slim displays to less than a third of current LCDs by 2015, right around the time Samsung thinks this tech will be ready for the mainstream, anyone else care to make a prediction? (Registration req'd on read link)

[Via Reuters & OLED-Info]

JVC dropping out of Japan's consumer LCD biz


In yet another flat panel shake up, the Nikkei is reporting JVC is going to pull the plug on its consumer LCD TV business in Japan, to focus on the European and U.S. markets (our iPod docks and thin screens are safe). Despite selling 300,000 units in Japan last year, its market share shrank to just 2.7%, and Reuters reports the company's stock has risen 11% on the news. With more cooperation among the biggest manufacturers driving prices down, its place as a high end brand based on advanced picture quality has slipped (sound like anyone else?). Expect official word April 25 when JVC unveils its latest earnings result and LCD strategy going forward, but we admit a morbid curiosity about how this will affect the Snap and Gesture HDTV's development.

[Via Reuters]

Pioneer stuck between Sharp & Panasonic as it exits plasma production

While the world waits for official word on the fate of Pioneer's plasma HDTV operations, The Nikkei offers an analysis of the state the company is in, and how it got here. The problems started with Sony's choice of LCD over plasma back in 2005, leaving Pioneer without a partner to sell its plasma panels (the way Samsung and Sharp sell Sony LCDs), and unable to reduce prices by boosting production. Now the company is caught between its top shareholder Sharp -- an LCD manufacturer, that wants to put Pioneer's speakers in its TVs and sell Pioneer LCDs -- and its new plasma supplier Panasonic (fear not, Panasonic hopes to exceed even the Kuro's contrast ratio in its upcoming displays). The Nikkei expects Pioneer to announce it will sell 40- to 50-inch LCD & plasma HDTVs at its press conference March 7, but we just want to know what happens to Project Kuro.

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