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CES thoughts on HDR

  While OLED was, of course, the big story of CES this year, and it seems to me that there are still lots of questions to be answered about the ability of LG and Samsung to deliver high volumes of these new TVs. But my first thoughts were about the content shown on the sets. … Read more

LED backlit TVs overtake CCFL for first time in Q3 2011

In the third quarter of this year the volume of LED-backlit LCD TV sets sold in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) went past the volume of CCFL-backlit sets for the first time, reaching 52%, according to figures from research consultancy, Meko, the specialists in display markets in Europe.   This shift helped ASPs stay … Read more

Delay the inevitable?

In Display Monitor back in March 2010, we reported on a talk by Paul Kedrosky, an economist from the US, at the US FPD conference in which he said that ‘the function of governments is to delay the inevitable’ (and he also said that there could be a major restructuring in the eurozone!). That comment … Read more

The Eurozone

Last week’s big EU meeting of leaders to move a bit further along the road to solving the problems of the Eurozone has been a big topic in discussions, as currencies and their movement really affect the business of our clients. At the moment, the recent weakness of the Euro against the dollar has offset … Read more

The power of the megapixel

I’m going to pick up on a subject that I have ranted about a lot. Looking back, however, it is actually 11 years since I devoted a whole editorial to the topic. One of our news items recently was about the ITU adoption of the Japanese Super-Hi Vision concept for 7680 x 4320 Ultra High … Read more

Intimations of Mortality

This week has been one for me of ‘intimations of mortality’, to slightly mis-quote Wordsworth. From the news last weekend that a friend and industry colleague has been diagnosed with cancer, through to the death of Steve Jobs, this week there has been too much bad news. Even between those two items came the news … Read more

Monitor sales drop again in Q2

Monitor sales volume in EMEA continued to slide in the second quarter of 2011, with a drop of 6.5% compared to the same period last year, according to European displays specialist, Meko.   This is the fourth consecutive quarter of decline.   Thanks to the stronger commercial sector the numbers have not been as bad … Read more

Small LCDs, Panel Pricing and PC Demand

One of the stories which caught my eye recently is the possible merger of Sony and Toshiba’s small panel business to create what would be the largest player in that space in the market. For Sony and Toshiba, a joint venture would look a reasonable proposition. Both companies have good display technology, especially in polysilicon, … Read more

Apple and the iCloud

I said a while ago that the days when a significant electronics category can be launched without an ‘ecosystem’ look numbered. The master of building an ecosystem to exploit and develop hardware has probably been Apple with its iPod/iTunes, iPhone/iPad/apps approach to the market. This week, Apple announced the iCloud, an attempt to unify these … Read more

Double Dips & Zombie Consumers

I was musing today, while writing my editorial for Display Monitor, about the general state of the economy globally and the potential for a ‘double dip’.  It seems to me (and I’m not an economist!), that what we are currently seeing is a problem with the timing of different parts of the economic system.  To … Read more