TFT-LCD Makers Bet on Large Flat Screens for TVs, Compete With PDP Manufacturers

摘要

Ahn Jae-Yong is one of those Ko-rean shoppers who usually study product reviews before buying a product. Recently, he bought 42-inch flat screen TV on impulse, goaded by the appealing design of the space-saving and slim flat screen TV. "Although it costs me more than US$7,000, I cannot restrain myself from buying it," he said. Just a couple of years after liquid crystal display (LCD) and plasma display technologies made a big push into CRT-based TV markets, demand for flat screen TVs is growing, promising to reinvigorate the mature global TV markets. In Japan, about two million flat TV screens are forecast to be shipped this year, accounting for about one quarter of global TV sales. The number is nearly two times that of last year's, according to iSuppli Corp., a U.S. market research firm.