Samsung signed $56 million PDP supply contract with Italy’s Sambers. Samsung will ship 14,000 50W PDPs to Sambers over life of 3-year contract -- 2,000, 4,000 and 8,000 in 2002, 2003 and 2004, respectively. Samsung, which began production in July, has month capacity at Chonan, S. Korea, plant of 30,000 units. Other OEM customers include Acer and Sampo. Samsung also signed on Electrograph to distribute its PDPs in U.S.
Toshiba and Matsushita will combine LCD manufacturing operations in most recent instance in wave of mergers that has roiled display business as manufacturers seek to cut costs. Toshiba will hold 60% stake in venture, Matsushita 40%. Alliance, which is scheduled to formally debut in April, extends agreement announced earlier this year under which companies were building $1 billion LCD plant in Singapore. They said they would aim for profit in fiscal year starting in April and target sales of $2.8 billion. Venture will encompass Toshiba’s low- temperature polysilicon LCD business, which recently unveiled 14.1” model as well as organic light emitting diode (OLED) technology. In addition to Singapore plant, joint venture will operate Toshiba LCD plant in Fukaya, Japan, as well as Matsushita factories in Ishikawa and Uozu. Not part of agreement are plasma display panels (PDPs), which Toshiba already sources from Matsushita for 42W and 50W models. In forging alliance, Toshiba- Matsushita joins NEC-Mitsubishi and LG Electronics-Philips in merging LCD operations in effort to better compete in price- driven market that has seen retail prices for desktop PC monitors drop below $500. NEC also sources some LCDs from Taiwan manufacturer Chi Mei Optoelectronics. Matsushita and Toshiba also established joint venture for buying parts and materials for CRT production. Company will make bow in April and will be based in Osaka, Japan. Agreement follows Matsushita’s signing in Sept. of 3-year cooperation agreement with Thomson in for CRTs.
Promoted at Kenwood USA: Sally House to mktg. communications mgr., Brian Towne to national product mgr., home and mobile electronics, (James Yamasaki to product mgr., navigation… Gary Wesley advanced to dir.-planning & business development for eBridge direct mktg. project, Sony Digital Authoring Services.
Toysrus.com will start selling Video Game Enhancer (VGE) from Nuwave Technologies in time for holiday season, companies said Wed. VGE is Nuwave’s proprietary videogame console accessory that video enhancement technology company says visibly improves graphics of videogames when displayed on TV. Company says patented integrated circuit chip technology of VGE adjusts black level, chroma, clarity, intensity, luminance, noise reduction. VGE is compatible with all major consoles, including Microsoft’s Xbox, Nintendo’s systems, Sega’s Dreamcast, Sony’s PlayStation platforms. Nuwave said VGE was being sold in more than 2,300 retail locations in U.K. and U.S. including Electronics Boutique, Gamestop, J&R Music & Computer World.
LG.Philips is expected to introduce new line of 17W, 23W and 30W LCDs at LCD/PDP International show in Japan later this month. LG.Philips, which has previously marketed 28”, will lead line with 30W that has 1,280x768 resolution, 450:1 contrast ratio, 450 candelas. Smaller 17W, which ships in Dec., has 1,280x768 resolution and 400 candelas, while 23W has 1,920x1,200.
DVD rentals in U.K. have grown to 15% of market, British press reported. Rental share for DVD was 9% at beginning of year and is expected to reach 20% by year-end. U.K. DVD Committee and others attributed increase to greater number of titles available, rental price that’s same as VHS and influx of entry-level DVD players at $149.
Philips overall consumer electronics operations would have been profitable for 3rd quarter if not for U.S. losses, senior Philips executives told financial reporters Tues. Royal Philips CFO Jan Hommen, responding to questioner, said “we have a number of activities in consumer electronics that are doing quite well,” but U.S. market has been “the main problem.” He said Philips had “a very focused program” in place to address problems and had installed new management, studied retail positioning, reviewed production and all supply chains: “If we can solve the U.S., we have a very profitable business in consumer electronics.”
Digital still camera size of Zippo lighter is being marketed in Japan by Nichimen Corp. and NH Japan Holdings. New Che-ez! Spyz camera ($65) has aluminum body and weighs 1- 1/4 oz. excluding batteries and chain. It uses 350,000-pixel CMOS pickup and 4-layer glass lens. Capacity of internal memory is 26 sec. still or 28 sec. of video. Plans for export sales weren’t disclosed.
David Margolese resigns as Sirius Satellite Radio CEO, will remain nonexecutive chmn., his duties to be assumed by CFO John Scelfo and Gen. Counsel Patrick Donnelly until permanent successor is found… Takeshi (Tim) Harada, onetime CEO of Capcom USA, appointed Warner Home Video managing dir. for Japanese operations… Hsing Tuan resigns as AU Optronics pres., plans unknown. Webster Howard, eMagin technology vp, promoted to chief technology officer… Andrew Smith ex- LiquidWit, named Dolby Labs global brand mktg. dir… Transmeta CEO Mark Allen resigns after 7 months on job, replaced by Chmn. Murray Goldman… Charles Brown promoted to Office Depot CFO from senior vp-finance.
Activision set Oct. 30 ship date for Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 for PlayStation and PlayStation 2. Titles, which Activision said currently are in production, will list for $49.99 and $39.99, respectively.