According to a new Leichtman Research study, one-third of all Americans now own an HDTV, putting market penetration at an all-time high. The number has doubled from 2006’s figures.
Just over 22 percent of all US homes purchased a new HDTV in the last 12 months, and about 48 percent spent over $1000 USD for their new TV.
“About 40 million U.S. households now have at least one HDTV set, and LRG forecasts that this number will double over the next four years,” noted Bruce Leichtman, President and principal analyst of Leichtman Research. “While more people than ever before have HDTV sets, educating consumers on HD programming remains an issue.
HDTV prices, whether they be for DLP, LCD or plasma screens, have been dropping exponentially over the past two years and 42 inch screens with full 1080p HD resolution can be found for under $1000 depending on the brand.
The study also says that 33 percent of current HDTV owners own more than one HDTV and that of the 67 percent that don’t, 30 percent are planning to purchase a second TV in the next year.
Result for: inch screens
Samsung has said it will become the latest company to begin offering new extra-wide 16:9 aspect ratio LCDs for notebooks.
Currently the electronics giant produces 15.4-inch, 16:10 screens found in most notebooks but it will begin 15.6-inch screens that are usually known to be better for movie viewing and side-by-side documents.
According to reports from display industry insiders, the production will start in November with commercial notebook releases being seen in early 2009.
Other display makers such as AU Optronics and LG Display are also reportedly producing 17.3-inch LCDs at the same 16:9 ratio that is usually targeted at HD viewing.
Result for: inch screens
Samsung SDI said today that it will be spending over $500 million USD to boost production of next-generation OLED displays to six times its current level by mid-2009.
This latest move comes as panel makers try to get bigger shares of the growing market for OLED displays, which offer better contrast ratio, slimmer designs and better energy efficiency than current LCD or plasma displays.
Currently, however, production costs are still high, too high to make OLED TVs available to the masses.
Samsung currently produces small-sized AM-OLED screens used in watches and other handheld devices and there was no word on whether this large new investment will be to increase production of small OLED screens or for all OLED production including TVs.
Using 2-inch screens as a basis, the new investment should raise capacity from 1.5 million units a month to over 9 million by mid-2009.
