IP: NEC offers 42-inch flat screen set

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

Date: Sat, 1 Mar 1997 17:46:25 -0500
To: "Recipient.List.Suppressed":;;;@central.cis.upenn.edu;;


Television: NEC offers 42-inch flat screen set


FRIDAY FEBRUARY 28 1997


By Michiyo Nakamoto


NEC, the Japanese electronics group, has become the first company
to sell a large-screen television set that is as thin as a framed
painting.


The TV, called PlasmaX, has a 42-inch screen, which NEC says
offers brighter images and better contrasts than normal sets.


The PlasmaX went on sale yesterday in Japan for =801.2m ($9,600). It
contains screen, tuner and speakers in a panel that is only 99mm
thick, or one-tenth that of conventional TVs.


Japanese electronics makers have been rushing to develop flat
screens in anticipation of a substantial demand due to the spread
of multi media systems.


Flat screens are expected to be popular in Japan, where bulky
conventional sets have hogged much of the limited space within
homes.


Plasma display panel (PDP) technology, which most manufacturers
believe is best for large-screen flat TVs, could not provide
images as bright as those from conventional sets until recently.


NEC claims it overcame this problem with its new tech-nology. The
PlasmaX emits pure colours through a display panel which uses
clear, thin, capsulated filters to cut unnecessary light.


However, given high costs, it will take several years before PDP
TVs become consumer products. NEC aims to reduce the price to
about =80420,000 for a 42-inch TV by 2000.


In June, the company plans to start mass-production of PDPs, which
it wants to use as monitors for personal computers, digital video
disk videos and TVs. It expects to produce 300,000 plasma display
panels by 2000 as well as 200,000 plasma display TVs.


"We consider PDP a very important core technology in the
multimedia age," said Mr Hisashi Kaneko, NEC president.


NEC competitor Fujitsu has been mass-producing plasma display
panels at a rate of 3,000 units per month since last October. Its
consumer electronics subsidiary uses the PDPs to produce
flat-screen TVs and estimates that initial production of 3,500
units in the five months to March will rise to 50,000 units next
year.


Sony and Sharp tied up last September to develop large-screen flat
display panels using plasma address liquid crystal technology that
Sony has licensed from a US company. They aim to develop a 40-inch
panel in the autumn for sale ahead of the Nagano winter Olympic
games to be held in early 1998 in Japan.


Matsushita, meanwhile, has launched a 26-inch plasma display TV
which is one-sixth the depth and about half the weight of
equivalent screen-size cathode ray displays.


The company believes the worldwide market for flat panels will
reach a value of =8070bn while that for flat panel displays will
grow to =80210bn by 2000.




=A9 Copyright the Financial Times Limited 1997 "FT" and "Financial
Times" are trademarks of The Financial Times Limited.