Slashdot Mirror
Taiwan and South Korea's LCD Market-Share Battle
prostoalex writes: "This lengthy article on Reuters Web site, filled with numbers and analyst references, talks about Korean and Taiwanese manufacturers starting a price war in the field of LCD. Apparently, last year all Taiwan-based manufacturers lost money, while Koreans made money, and the companies are ready to slash their prices in turn for market share." From my reading of the article, it looks like the manufacturers may actually be reluctant to trade profits for market share, but this kind of competition still sounds good for LCD buyers.
I recently got an 18" Cornea flatpanel. It's great, a terrific monitor at the price of the other guy's 17". I suppose some might balk that it only has VGA analog inputs, but that's all I'm ready for anyway.
I think the company is Korean, maybe did some work for OEMs, and now they're out on their own.
Probably all psychosomatic, but it feels great to only be beaming myself with hours and hours of CRT radiation at work, not at home...
SO YOU'RE GOING TO DIE: The Comic for Dealing with Death
Define "losing" money. And what is "profit?" Is it how you phrase the question to the accountant?
These companies do invest great amounts of capital for machines and upgrades. Much of this is overtime and I'm sure the employees don't feel that this is a "loss."
While that's true, there is a breaking point for all prices.
For example, right now I'm looking at an iiyama visionmaster pro17 that I paid $600 for almost five years ago (and thought, BTW, that I was getting quite the deal). I think the prices for LCD screens in general are high now, but I *really* want one so I can buy a nice desk and unclutter a bit. Even so, if it looks like there's a price war on the horizen, I'll wait.
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
do you suffer from Attention Deficit Disorder or something like that?
Enjoy yourself and your new monitor!
If you're going to listen to this advice then I hope you've got a box of screen cleaning wipes handy.
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
The Korean company Samsung has a lot to do with this, I think. They absolutely own the high end market. I'm lucky enough to have a Samsung 240T, which is a 24" diagonal unit that can do 1920x1200 and can mix the digital and analog inputs (picture in picture). At $4995 (almost two years ago) it wasn't cheap, but it's rock solid, gorgeous, has an incredible viewing angle, and nothing else came close (at the time, anyway). Samsung used to have a rep as a crapfacturer, but these days they've really come up in the world.
Cantankerous old coot since 1957.
selling products under own costs is not any good for the consumer in the long run. They are not lowering the prices to do common good. Instead they do it to kill the other one and make bigger profits later by raising prices.
Posted article reads:
However, the article reads:
If the poster is accurate, this means that the Taiwanese profits have grown from some unknown negative to a postive 20 in less than a year. Decent gains on profits if you ask me.
You like splinters in your crotch? -Jon Caldara
Besides, aren't they counting on a few additional facts?
- LCD prices are continuously dropping due to improved manufacturing processes
- larger volumes means lower prices
I'm guessing the plan is something like this:Bleh!
From what I know, the majority of LCDs produced today are still made in Taiwan.. and that's a bad thing.
It's teh same problem that chip manufacturers are facing -- what happens when the majority of your compoinets are made in the same small area of land? should something catostophic happen, your supply could be completely wiped out.
Other's getting into the game is good for this so whouls something happen to Taiwan like a major earthquake (it is on the "ring of fire") you still have other suppliers in other places who can help take up the slack.
Remeber the Fire in a Taiwanese industial park a few years ago? One factory catching fire sent memory prices soarsing for a few weeks.. just think if a few factories where utterly destoyed?
Hilary Rosen's speech was about her love of money and her desire to roll around naked in a pile of money.
Same here.. I couldn't get a GeForce2 or PNY GeForce3 to drive the DVI on an FP2000 without speckle and snow, even at lower resolutions.
A PNY GeForce4 4200 did the trick, though. Tack-sharp 1600x1200, no problem.
I'm starting to wonder if DVI isn't so standardized.
As a software engineer/lead dude in Taiwan, i feel that the more fabs outputting the merrier. I keep my job and everyone stays happy -- obviously the customer will benefit the most from such a competitive environment. Kinda like the RAM market was a few years back.
... but just remember AUO Fab 8 and Chimei Fab 3 in Taiwan coming up soon. LG / Samsung has one 5G running as we speak and probably another one coming soon. In fact, I heard AUO Fab 9 will be done by the end of next year...
Right now I'm working on Acer-Unipac Line 8 which is a 5G (fifth generation) outfit that put's out glass beginning in the 21" form-factor. The previous fabs like L6/L5 will pick up speed in the 17" arena. I think Samsung's newest place in Korea is also 5G and was up and running well before Acer.
The next 5G fab coming up is Chimei Fab 3 in Tainan . Both the Acer and Chimei fabs will be rolling full production by next spring. This will bring TV-class LCD panel prices down quite a bit.
The carrier sizes for these babies are huge -- I mean like the size of your regular cubicle. Good ole wafer fabs you used to be able to hand-carry the product around. These you need a forklift. But since they don't have any "clean" forklifts they have to use these funky $60,000 USD handcarts that move them around.
Anyway, I'm blabbing
So, I probably said too much, but I didn't sign any NDA, so I don't care...
While 21" monitors are very nice in display quality, they do have a couple of downsides:
1. A 21" monitor consumes quite a lot of power. They average about 150-170 W draw when running in full power mode. Most larger-screen LCD's consumer about 1/3 to 1/4 of that.
2. A 21" monitor also weights a lot, too. They weight over 70 lbs. in weight on average, which could strain some desk designs. A top-end 19" LCD weights about 13-15 pounds in comparison.
3. A 21" monitor takes up a huge amount of space depth-wise.
Besides, today's 18-19" LCD's at 1280x1024 resolution are getting quite good. For around US$950, you can get top-end NEC and Viewsonic models with very sharp displays and very fast response times (necessary to play games and play back DVD's).
Raymond in Mountain View, CA
and if the Taiwanese are LOSING MONEY, then the Taiwanese are doing SOMETHING TERRIBLY WRONG !
I mean, we are not talking about making floppy disks here. These LCD babies are STILL expensive !
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !