Canon to start mass-producing ultra-thin TVs in '08
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CHIBA, Japan  - Canon Inc. 7751.T said on   Tuesday it will start mass production of ultra-thin   energy-conserving TVs in early 2008, defying predictions that   steep price falls in flat-screen TVs would make it tough to   roll out the new technology.
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the world leader in production of the ultra-thin glass used by companies such as LG Philips LCD (NYSE: LPL), Sony (NYSE: SNE), Hitachi (NYSE
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(InfoWorld) - Smartphone users will be able to watch broadband television and snap high-resolution photos on their handsets in 2007 thanks to new processor and memory chips launched at theÂ 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona on Monday. Together with dropping prices, these chips will help spread smartphones from high-end business users to a larger mass-market audience, according to hardware component manufacturers attending the 3GSM show. Camera phones will get a boost in power by using high-resolution image sensors from Micron Technology. The company's new MT9-series sensors use a 1.75-micron pixel design in resolutions of up to 5 megapixels. The top-shelf version, MT9P012, captures video at 60 frames per second at 720p resolution or 30 fps at 1080p and will be ready for sampling in the second quarter of 2007 with mass production by the middle of the year. Likewise, OmniVision Technologies announced a 5.17-megapixel camera module for mobile handsets using the OV5623 CameraChip sensor. That sensor will help high-resolution camerasÂ enter the mainstream mobile handset market, the company said. To store those large photo files, SanDisk announced it had developed a high-capacity version of its iNAND embedded flash drive, capable of holding up to 8GB of data. The new drives are now compliant with JEDEC (joint electron device engineering council) standards, allowing phone vendors to use them in designs that demand enough storage for mobile TV, multimedia downloading, digital audio players, gaming, and GPS. Also supporting mobile television, Qualcomm said that its UBM (Universal Broadcast Modem) chip would ship ahead of schedule, delivering mobile TV capability to mass-market handsets. A single UBM chip contains three technology standards, including FLO technology, digital video broadcasting for handhelds, and integrated service digital broadcasting-terrestrial. Qualcomm also said it would boost mobile broadband by the end of 2007 by launching the Mobile Data Modem 8200, a chipset supporting the next generation of WCDMA (wideband code division multiple access). A smartphone using that chip could support mobile Internet browsing, real-time location services, and multimedia sharing, the company said. To support these capabilities without driving up retail prices, vendors say they need to increase the market size, so another feature of many chips launched at 3GSM was low cost. Broadcom launched its EDGE processor, integrating a radio frequency transceiver, baseband functions, and multimedia connectivity support on a single chip. That design lets phone vendors create slimmer designs, reduce power consumption, and control costs, Broadcom said. Likewise, Qualcomm said its Mobile Station Modem (MSM) 7225 chipset would allow vendors to sell broadband-capable smartphones for less than $200. The chipset uses a dual-processor architecture for high-speed downlink packet access. The company will ship samples in the third quarter of 2007 and expects vendors to bring it to market by the first quarter of 2008. Microsoft said it had another way to open up larger markets for smartphones, adding desktop-quality features to handsets, such as VoIP calls and faster e-mail traffic with higher-quality graphics. Microsoft launchedÂ Windows Mobile 6, its latest OS for mobile handsets, and said it expected a crop of smartphones using the OS to reach market in March or April. Marvell Technology Group pledged to help that migration by announcing it would support the new OS on its PXA300-series processors. Those chips were formerly known as "Monahans" until Marvell bought the division from Intel in 2006. Â
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The devices, which will be available soon, will offer better picture quality than earlier models.
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Samsung is close to producing a lighter, thinner, better television.
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(InfoWorld) - BenQÂ plans to offer a 65-inch LCD TV in the second half of this year as it moves to expand the size of its LCD TV products, a manager in its digital media group said Friday. The company is also researching the possibility of using LED (light emitting diode) backlights in some desktop LCDs (liquid crystal displays), including 19-inch and 21-inch sizes. The company currently has noÂ laptop PCs equipped with LED backlightsÂ due to concerns that the displays are too easy to break, said Greg Lin, a manager at BenQ's digital media group, in Taipei. BenQ plans to offer a range of new LCD TV products this year, including a new 37-inch model that supports full high definition viewing, due out in April, and a 46-inch model to be launched in July or August. "Our focus is on the middle to high end LCD TV, and we want to increase our offering of larger and larger sizes," said Lin. The new LCD TVs will be sold in Taiwan, China, and the Middle East initially, and some will make it to Europe by the second half of this year, he said. The LCD panel used in the TV makes the biggest difference in picture quality, and it's down to the supplier to improve their technology in order to meet user demands for clear images and vivid colors, he said. Around 80 percent of BenQ's LCD panels come from AU Optronics, he said. LED backlights, which greatly enhance color saturation in LCD TVs but cost a lot more than older technologies, could be used in BenQ LCD TVs sometime in 2008, he said. Currently, LED backlights for larger displays go into high end LCD TVs. AU has said it ships some LCD TV panels equipped with LED backlights to customers in Japan that are willing to pay a premium for the picture quality. A backlight is a light behind the LCD display, on a laptop, monitor or TV, used to illuminate the screen. Most flat displays currently rely on cold cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL) backlights because the technology is less expensive than LEDs. The LED backlights can be two to three times more expensive than CCFLs, an executive at AU, the world's third largest LCD (liquid crystal display) screen maker, said in an interview last year. LED makers have been driving down costs by putting LEDs into more gadgets. The more they increase production, the lower their per-LED cost. LEDs are now used in auto lights and the small displays on DVD players and MP3 digital music devices. Some companies, including Asustek Computer, are starting to announce new laptop PCs with LED backlights in their screens. As costs come down, LEDs will be used in larger and larger screens. Â
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Looking to beef up interest in plasma, Hitachi makes a thin one.
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Television makers say 16-inch-thick tube sets will arrive next year at a fraction of the price of thin rivals.
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TOKYO - Sony Corp is attempting to claw back market share of the domestic flat-panel TV market with the launch of eight new televisions.
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TOKYO - Toshiba Corp. plans to abandon the plasma display panel television market and would begin next summer producing surface conduction electron emitter display (SED) panels for flat panel televisions with 40-inch or larger screens.
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Toshiba Corp. plans to abandon the plasma display panel television market and would begin next summer producing surface conduction electron emitter display (SED) panels for flat panel televisions with 40-inch or larger screens.
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Casio is expected to announce a camera capable of shooting up to 60 full-resolution images in one second at CES.
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Sony Corp  on Sunday unveiled  a next-generation super-thin television and a robot-like music  player, and an executive said the economy had not hit U.S.  consumer sales -- yet.
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Sony said Thursday that it would begin selling eight new television models outfitted with semiconductors designed to produce sharper images, including two with a lighting system that the company says is the world&#39;s first.
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Japan's JVC will launch new flat-panel LCD TVs in the U.S. this year that it says are the world's thinnest.
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Japanese technology companies Canon Inc. and Toshiba Corp. said on Tuesday they would invest &#36;1.82 billion in a joint venture to manufacture advanced flat panel displays.
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OLED TVs are getting ready for prime time and are among the stars of CES. But some say the flat-screen TVs, which are as thin as a framed picture on the wall, have too short a life span and are very expensive.