LCD TV Center

Samsung has just played its “mine is bigger than yours” card against Sharp when it unveiled what it claims is the first 70in LCD TV for consumers. In doing so it supersized past Sharp who offer an Aquos LCD TV with a screen size of 65in.

Samsung also claim (they would) that the HD TV offers better video reproduction, viewing angle and image quality. One reason is the video signal is reproduced at 120Hz, compared to 60Hz for a conventional full HD LCD panel. This helps rapidly moving video images to be reproduced with high clarity, which has been one of the drawbacks with LCD TVs.

The supersized flat panel has full high-definition resolution of 1080p and Samsung claim a conical viewing angle of 180 degrees.

The queue for delivery will be a long one - expect circa mid 2007 availability - as Samsung will begin producing the 70in LCD TV during the first half of 2007.

No doubt before then, one of the other LCD TV manufacturers will announce a bigger panel.

Good news for shoppers - the fight for the top position in the LCD TV market is fiercer than ever.

Sony has been blitzing the market with advertising for its Bravia range of LCD TVs. The big campaign has paid off because Sony’s LCD TV revenue for the first 3 months of 2006 grew to 15 percent of the market, pushing Samsung with 13.9 percent into 2nd place and Sharp with 12.7 percent into 3rd. Philips was just behind Sharp with 11.9 percent.

Most impressively sales revenue for these 3 months was five-times what it sold during the same period just a year ago and it sold 3.5 times as many TVs. (Note that Sony is still working to get its TV division back to overall profitability after it made a slow start in the LCD TV market).

Samsung made good progress with sales of its TV panels growing by 30 percent. The move to larger TVs was demonstrated by sales of 40-inch and larger screens growing by 90 percent over the previous 3 months.

Sharp also continues to do well. Its target is to sell 6 million LCD TVs worldwide during its 2006 financial year, with the goal of winning 30 percent market share for 40-inch TVs during the U.S. Christmas shopping season.

Sharp claims to have sold nearly 1.13 million LCD TVs worldwide during the 3 months April-June 2006. This is an increase of 50 percent from 755,000 LCD TVs it sold during the same period in 2005.

Keep up to date with the latestSony LCD TV and Sharp LCD TV news at www.lcdtvcenter.com