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Struggling Toshiba looks for help from LCDs, not Blu-ray

by Darren Murph posted Sep 19th 2008 at 9:29AM


As with scads of other mega-corps attempting to keep their chins up while the global economy decides what it wants to do, Toshiba has announced that it is now forecasting a $468 million net loss in the first half of 2008. Interestingly, it's being reported that the firm is looking to its LCD HDTVs for growth as its chip business struggles, with plans to grab over 10% of the worldwide LCD TV market by 2011. For whatever reason, the outfit is still refusing to play ball with the lone remaining high-definition movie format, with Corporate Senior Vice President Yoshihide Fujii proclaiming that it has "no intention of adopting Blu-ray for [its] DVD players and recorders." Quite honestly, Tosh's refusal to go Blu is beyond the point of comic relief -- now, it's just downright perplexing.

Read - Toshiba dips into the red
Read - Toshiba counts on LCD TV growth
Read - Toshiba again refuses to go Blu

North American TV shipments up 28% year-over-year, Samsung gets bragging rights

by Darren Murph posted Aug 16th 2008 at 12:13AM

Despite the weakening economy here in the US and elsewhere, people are -- as predicted -- still showing interest in HDTV. Shortly after seeing what a nice Q2 the plasma sector had, DisplaySearch has revealed that TV shipments in general were way, way up in said quarter. In fact, North America saw the biggest year-over-year increase (28%) since the outfit started tracking TV shipments in 2004; then there's the 26% quarter-over-quarter growth, which is equally impressive. LCD TV shipments rose 52% compared to last year while PDP shipments shot up 34% in the same period, and it's safe to say that Samsung has the most to gloat about. It was the leading overall brand with shipments of its sets surging to a record 19.1% of all shipments in North America during Q2. Anxious to see who took the proverbial silver / bronze? Check out all of the stats in the read link below.

Australia's Foxtel nets 40,000 new subscribers since HD+ launch

by Darren Murph posted Aug 13th 2008 at 9:37PM


Only a few months have passed since Australia's Foxtel launched its HD+ service, and judging by the numbers, Aussies are warming to high-def. The carrier just posted a 17% rise in revenue (up to $1.7 billion), and it's expecting the numbers to remain high as more consumers cave to the temptation of high-definition programming. Furthermore, 40,000 new users have signed on since the HD+ launch, and the average revenue per user has skyrocketed to nearly $85 per month "as a result of a higher take-up of additional services such as Foxtel iQ." There's no specific mention of additional HD channels, but given that bigwigs surely realize how critical they are to revenue growth, we can't imagine them not giving you folks a few more here shortly.

Matsushita profit soars 86% on the wings of high flat-panel sales

by Darren Murph posted Jul 31st 2008 at 8:30AM

So Sony didn't do so hot this quarter, but that's not to say someone else can't have fun at its expense. Matsushita Electric just posted its most recent quarterly earnings, and needless to say, it's probably pretty stoked about the 86% rise in profit. According to reports, the majority of the credit goes to digital camera and flat-panel television sales, and even though sales actually decreased 4%, operating profit still rose 48% from a year prior. Good to see someone's making sure that flat-panels rule the consumer electronics roost in 2008.

DisplaySearch Q2 plasma results shows big growth, Matsushita on top

by Darren Murph posted Jul 28th 2008 at 4:28PM

Oh, how quickly the mighty have fallen (again). Shortly after Matsushita dropped to third in plasma shipments in Q1, the outfit has leapfrogged both LG and Samsung SDI in order to claim the gold in Q2 2008. The outfit's revenue share skyrocketed from 29.4% to 36.8%, showing a 23% year-over-year improvement. Also of note, 1080p PDPs saw remarkable growth (54% year-over-year) this quarter, which were reportedly driven by sales of 46-inch models. Looking at Matsushita in particular, over 43% of its plasma shipments in Q2 were 1080p, and overall it "accounted for over 70% of all 1080p PDP shipments." Anyone taking bets on who comes out on top in Q3?

Samsung SDI expected to post first profit in two years

by Darren Murph posted Jul 25th 2008 at 4:01PM


Samsung SDI has definitely been on the offensive of late, producing the world's first WVGA OLED panels for handhelds, a 3D AMOLED display and plans to crank out medium to large OLED TVs in just a year or so. Its efforts are paying off, as the firm is expected to post its first profit since dipping into (and remaining in) the red back in Q1 2005. According to Kim Dong-won, an analyst at Hyundai Securities, the outfit is forecasting a ?3.1 billion ($3.05 million) profit for Q2 2008 -- quite a bit better than the ?31 billion ($30.5 million) in losses analysts were expecting. Here's a hint for staying in the black: get a few big screen OLED HDTVs out before everyone else. Simple, right?

AT&T finally breaks the half million mark with U-verse customers

by Darren Murph posted Jul 25th 2008 at 11:26AM


AT&T's U-verse still isn't a clear cut winner in the world of HD carriers, but it sure got a lot more attractive with the recent rollout of 2 HD / 2SD -- which enabled users to record one high-def program while watching another (or record two HD shows simultaneously). During Q2 2008, the company managed to pick up 170,000 new U-verse subscribers (versus 148,000 in Q1 2008), and since it closed 2007 with 231,000, it has more than doubled its customer base (549,000) in half a year. At its current rate, it'll be tight to make its goal of one million subscribers by the end of 2008, but it might just get there. Can't say our faith was nearly as high just six months prior.

[Via HD-Report]

Home video spending still strong, $194 million spent on Blu-ray in 2008

by Darren Murph posted Jul 16th 2008 at 9:16AM


Slumping economy? Recession? Poppycock. Based on sales of home media, America's financial engine is humming along just fine, with consumers plunking down 1.6% more on DVD / Blu-ray purchases and rentals combined than they did in the first half of 2007. Granted, some may suggest that home entertainment is seeing an increase as more lavish alternatives (going out for a movie, taking a vacation, etc.) are utilized less frequently, but whatever the case, this sector is sure benefiting. Focusing on HDM, we're hearing that $194 million has been spent on Blu-ray Disc thus far in 2008, which is up some 350% from $43 million in 1H 2007. Amazing what a format war conclusion will do for numbers, huh?

[Image courtesy of Syracuse, thanks Joel]

LG Display to post huge Q2 profits, LCD sales expected to slump in coming quarters

by Darren Murph posted Jul 8th 2008 at 2:54PM


While we just heard last month that flat-panel sales would be spearheading 2008 consumer electronics growth, a new outlook has those very sales looking bleak for the remainder of the year. The news come amidst the expectation of LG Display to post profits for Q2 that "more than [triple] thanks to strong demand for TVs and tight supplies of PC panels." According to James Kim, an analyst at Lehman Brothers, "earnings have peaked in the second quarter," and while he asserts that "demand to replace TVs with flat-screen models is still there, fewer consumers are buying large-size TVs because of the weak economy." Still, sales of smaller sets are expected to steadily climb in emerging markets as the Beijing Olympics draw near, but it remains to be seen how large an impact those markets will have.

[Via WidescreenReview]

High definition affects Sony, Comcast quarterly reports

by Richard Lawler posted Apr 27th 2006 at 2:04PM

It's that time of year, as companies report their results for the first quarter, already we've seen two benefit from high definition. Comcast reported growth as a result of adding customers in phone video and high speed internet, as well as adding DVR's and high definition for existing digital cable customers.Sony beat expectations due to investments and gained marketshare in the flat screen TV market, but still had a loss over the quarter.

As the market of HDTV owners and interested buyers continues to grow, it will be interesting to see how it affects the various device and content providers' businesses. We'll probably keep an eye on the Time Warner blog to see if they have any updates.

[Note: I am a Comcast employee and stockholder. I don't own stock in Sony, but I did love my Betamax player in what some would consider an inappropriate fashion.]

[Oh yeah, and Time Warner owns AOL, who owns this blog, I think I'm disclaimered up now, but you never know, so watch for updates.]




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