Sometimes swimming upstream is the right thing to do. While Japan and Korean rivals like Sharp, Panasonic, Samsung and LG were investing heavily in LCD fabs and equipment to bring on the next efficient LCD panel line, NEC Corp. took a different path. The company founded subsidiary NEC Technologies Ltd. in 2003 to target niche markets and specialized displays that fetch a hefty profit, and keep the company out of the bottom-feeding commodity display space with its eroding ASPs.

Steve Sechrist
Senior Analyst and Editor

At that time a price war was raging in monitor displays and rather than join the fight, NEC decided to back away from the commodity PC monitor business to target commercial applications and a solution-based model instead. In the US, that meant moving from box sellers to customer-focused solutions for a wide variety of markets, including enterprise, professional, education, medical and digital signage.

To get there the company’s R&D arm in Japan began focusing on solving unique display problems for specific applications like daylight readability and expanded viewing angle. "We will not succeed if we neglect to create new markets," said President Toshihiko Ueno in a recent Nikkei.net interview. "We are determined to prosper in areas not covered by the major players," Ueno said.

The company currently produces 180 varieties of LCDs based on innovations including its "NLT" technology. This enables viewing in bright sunlight based on transflective (semi-transmissive) technology that has both transmissive and reflective mode characteristics. The company said at night, or in weak light, the display operates in transmissive mode with a backlight to guarantee high visibility. In daylight, or in bright light, the display uses reflective mode with ambient light. One of the side benefits is low energy consumption since visibility can be secured in high ambient light even with the backlight turned off.

One example of NEC’s niche market focus comes from the medical market. In December, they released a new line of color and grayscale very high resolution flat-panel medical monitors specifically for diagnostic and clinical use including medical imaging applications in radiology and Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS). The company adds value by acquiring full medical certifications, DICOM calibration and includes what it calls the X-Light Pro sensor system for maintaining a consistent image-critical to this market. Other features include a 12-bit lookup table, LCD uniformity error detection (ColorComp) front or backlight sensors, plus a 5-year limited warranty with overnight exchange service from NEC. For its trouble, the company gains a nice profit from prices that range from $3,899 to $5K.

On the digital signage front, NEC was an early player in developing the market and partnering with companies to provide total solutions to the VAR community. The most recent example of this came from a collaboration NEC struck with Rise Vision, which offers digital signage software to allow web-based content management for the control of digital signage networks (with NEC displays, of course)

All this effort has not gone unnoticed. In early December, NEC Display Solutions of America, Inc. was selected to receive the 2008 Global Frost & Sullivan Customer Value Enhancement Award "…for its customer-centric strategies aimed at offering a total solution approach, [that]has offered significant value to its customers."

And that’s the point. NEC, Apple, Planar, and a hand full of other CE companies recognize that it’s not about simply manufacturing your way out of tough times. They never seem to take a business as usual approach, but recognize job one is to understand the customer, the specific issues and needs-then serving those needs in a way that creates value-and ultimately success in the market. It’s comforting to know that even when companies are shaken by difficult economic times, the cream will still rise to the top. - Steve Sechrist

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