Taiwan at CeBIT 2007: Flat Panel Displays and Digital TV

Dear Reader:

This 7 th e-paper deals with Taiwan's: LCD TV, Plasma TV, High Definition TV and DVB-TV. You will find the majority of suppliers on the TAIWAN DISPLAY PAVILION in Hall 19, and individual exhibitors scattered all over the place.

Typical for nearly all fields of technology from Taiwan, the nation's dominance in this business on the world market is not easy to be traced, mainly due to the lack of prominent Taiwan brands on the retail market. But at second glance and only visible to insiders it becomes evident how local industries have their fingers in the pie all the way up and down the value-added chain - - . either they are contract suppliers to international bigwigs or flat panel and other key component suppliers to the contract suppliers which cater to those bigwigs.

A quick survey through local news sources show that this field is, and will continue to be a stronghold of the island's ICT industry.

Taiwan's major suppliers of LCD TVs have planned to promote or mass produce full HD LCD TVs to venture into the market for large-sized flat panel TV systems, which are expected to become the mainstream models in the market. Such full HD LCD TVs are usually coupled with high-end equipment, including stereo speakers and high definition multimedia interfaces.

Here is a typical example of how deep one has to dig to find things out: One big local electronic concern Kolin ( who's Kolin, for remote overseas observers ?) is to contract a company named First International Computer as a manufacturer for a batch of 100,000 LCD TVs to the European market, mainly Germany, Britain and France, through its reinvested sales arm, SyntaxBrilla (again, who is SyntaxBrilla to the un-initiated ? ), after having delivered a total shipment of 600,000 LCD TVs in 2006 already and intending to double this figure to a total of 1,2 million in 2007 !!

Or: Royal Philips Electronics,has set up an R&D center in Taiwan, as the island boats an integrated industry chain of TFTs. It is the second international LCD TV brand to follow the footsteps of Sony, already operating an R&D center for its Brivia-branded LCD TVs.

Aided by the Department of Industrial Technology of Industrial Technology under the Ministry of Economic Affairs, a group of seven local LCD equipment suppliers have jointly set up an alliance for the research and development of key equipment for the manufacturing of large-sized LCD panels to more aggressively tap the market. The production value of Taiwan's flat panel display industry outstripped the equivalent of US$ 31 billion in 2006, and is expected to grow further after the panel-equipment suppliers join the industry.

In a nutshell: If you are a buyer of LCD-related equipment, be I monitors or TV, you should not circumnavigate Taiwan at CeBIT but make it one of your priorities.

And for all that flat panel exuberance, don't forget other sectors, like DVB-T set-top boxes, where Asuka Semiconductor features what they claim to be the world's smallest DVB-T receiver module plus ARAK-60, the world's smallest handheld digital TV with just 115x77x 21mm.

Let us not forget the usual names dropping: TECO the Taiwan industrial concern, of course, will be there, as always with its whole range of flat panel home entertainment including European Standard Analog TVs, then famous Proview with LCD TVs and monitors, IISONIC, with its complete home theater line including Plasma TVs of which 42 inches, Green-Box with AV extenders and HDMI/DVI expanders and, last not least, Ultmost, my personal favorite because he is one of the very few offering LCoS ( Liquid Crystal on Silicone ) technology for his giant 52-inch rear projection TV, a surprisingly crisp and clear alternative to plasma and LCD. technology

And now for something completely different:

Let us dream for a moment that your business during the gold rush times of ICT was so profitable that you could afford Mercedes Benzes as company and private cars, Champagne Dom Perignon as your daily drink - - and a huge double-floor stand at CeBIT as your show window to the world.

Let us further imagine a temporary recession or market saturation, calling for razor thin profit margins or even losses and subsequent expense-cutting to stay alive - - so you go back to Toyota and Coca Cola, and furthermore, have to consider cutting your trade fair expenditure.

Would you now have the guts to publicly disgrace the Benz brand or call Dom Perignon a lowly plonk ? Or, for that matter, belittle the CeBIT brand ?

YOU certainly would not, but there are always self-styled analysts, who, uninvited, rack their brains for your possible motives instead of asking you directly, or simply look into your balance sheet and credit rating or use other approved methods of investigative journalism if they believe that you lie as naturally as you breathe about your real motives.

Facing this, and in continuance of my comments in last e-paper, I take the liberty to call it a total loss of my, and infinitely worse, of your time to even think about what sour grape syndromes might govern the minds of these scholars of trivia who find the conceivable absence of three or four companies more noteworthy than the achievements and qualifications of 6.000-plus returns and what improvements you as a visitor will face when you return.

So, we today added five fresh CeBIT releases to our headline section for a total of now 11 all-embracing stories about what awaits you at CeBIT 2007 and 2008.

A press release is an article that reflects the belief of its creator, which might differ from the judgment of an editor, but that makes TAIWAN TECHNOLOGY even more efficient: You get two opinions for the price of one !

For next e-paper, this ardent opponent of avoidable meetings will sift through the colossal ancillary program of 1000 events for CeBIT 2007 and will even dare to make recommendations in order to save you time !

See you in a few days,

Yours truly, Dieter Neumann U.I.P.R.E. Senior Editor Hannover Pacific Publications NeumannTaiwan@web.de www.Taiwan-Technology.com www.cebit.de

And here, some previews from our exhibitors:

		Kingmax “Super Stick Series” The World's Smallest 4GB Flash Drive Hits the Market Loop Telecommunication International, Inc. (Loop Telecom) proudly announces the release of the Loop-O9330 Fiber Optical Mux.....more
		Thinnest E-TEN Pocket PC Phone Coming Soon glofiish X500 Delivers GPS and Wi-FiR All-in-One E-TEN Information Systems has released details of the company's upcoming plans for the Pocket PC Phone market. Highlights of the announcement include an all new case design that is considerably thinner than current products; upgraded communications with support for faster protocols and standards........more
		You Make Bright Choice! We Make Right Touch! DanoTech Co., Ltd. is pleased to announce that its factory has been certified by DNV Certification B.V. to conform to the Management System Standards of ISO 9001:2000 and 14001:2004 for its design and manufacture of electronic panels .......more
		eGalax_eMPIA Technology Inc. ( EETI ) is a world leading design house for touch solutions and video/audio capture device IC. Our products are widely used by touch panel makers, system integrators such as POS/KIOSK/Touch monitor, CAR PC/ Industrial PC/HMI, portable devices (Microsoft Ultra Mobile PC), car PC and many more .....more