LG set to lead plasma display segment

With this breakthrough, the company aims to be the market leader with 30 percent market share in PDP modules by 2005, and the leading manufacturer of PDP television sets with 20 percent market share by 2006.

The new Hurricane II plasma display TV packs in more power than its predecessor, Hurricane. The high definition 42 and 50-inch models boasts of screen resolutions of 852 x 480 and 1366 x 768, brightness of 1500cd/m2 and the highest contrast ration of 10000:1. Viewers can enjoy duel screen display and split zoom with the picture-in-picture (PIP) and picture-out-picture (POP) modes to enable viewing two channels at once. The models also have built-in surround sound speakers.

"LG Electronics has reinforced its market leadership in the two flat panel display segments, PDP and LCD TVs. We registered turnover of US $ 395 million in TV sales in 2004, a 327.6 per cent increase over 2003 in PDP category, and are aiming for a 30 percent share of the global PDP module market by 2005. The global PDP market has been growing quickly due to the drastic improvements seen in PDP screen quality and performance vis-à-vis falling prices. The global PDP TV market will continue to expand to 6.3 million units by 2005, 10 million units by 2006, and 12 million units by 2007," said C H Lee, President, LG Electronics Gulf FZE.

LG has replaced the traditional glass filter with a film filter in the Hurricane II plasma display TVs. Film filters enhance picture quality by improving colour purity and contrast ratios and enables angle free viewing. The elimination of the glass filter reduces the total weight of the unit in comparison to other plasma display TV's.

To keep pace with the demand for PDP TVs, LG is focused on developing televisions for the mass market. The company will use its digital TV-related core competency in the three areas of core chip sets, display components (vertical sequencing), and software, as well as patents on digital TV transmission technologies (VSB/EVSB), to aggressively penetrate the rapidly growing digital TV market.

LG is the market leader in the PDP TV segment in 17 countries including the UK, Germany, Spain, Australia, Saudi Arabia, and South Africa; the company aims to be the market leader in 30 countries by 2005. To aggressively explore overseas markets, LG has established digital TV production bases in three hubs - North America (Mexico), Europe (Poland), and China (Shenyang and Nanjing).

Set to live up to its name and take the region by storm, the Hurricane II range features LG's pioneering XD Engine and a digital TV (DTV) real-image picture-enhancing chip for crisper pictures. The models offer an astonishing 60,000 hours of viewing, an increase on the standard 20,000 hours, and can be wall mounted.

By focusing on strategic linkages between home audio-video, car infortainment and mobile audio-video business, LG aims to rank among the top three global players in the digital display and media segment by 2007.