News and Reviews....

    Know Your Brands... LCD Outsourced  February 2008

 By Robert Lieto

LCD manufacturing is not a strong point in the U.S of A, and not too many of the average consumer realize that the name on some of our most branded companies does not come from them. It is made by others, usually a name not recognized.  A recent report by DisplaySearch a display market research company reported that 23% of the 20.1 million LCD TVs shipped in Q3'07 were made by external OEMs. We all have strolled into our local TV store and shopped for TVs, even if we just looking, but I wonder if you had noticed names like TPV, Jabil, AmTRAN, Quanta, Proview, Vestel or Wistron, probably not.  These OEM manufactures are the companies used by Grundig, HP, Polariod, Vizio, ViewSonic, and Westinghouse.  TPV led the TV set subcontract manufacturing market with a 19.9% share, followed by Proview, Jabil and AmTRAN. The main customer for TPV is Philips. Philips outsourced more then 60% of its LCD TVs shipped in Q3'07.Visio is another name that is getting brand recognition they are a main customer for AmTRAN.. Polariod is the main customer for Proview,  while the main customer for  a Taiwanese company called Jabil is Philips once again. There are other companies that go by the names LG Philips, a subsidiary of LG Electronics, CMO, CPT and AUO are companies used by Philips, Samsung LCD and Sony respectively. The screens in the above paragraph are 24 inch diagonal and under and do not include LCD Computer monitors (Tuner less)

The Plasma and Large LCD TV markets are segmented as well. With only five glass makers for all Plasma glass panels., but countless bezel names. Large LCD panels are typically generated by a hand full of providers. The one great difference between this paragraph and upper is that if the five Plasma glass makers or the Large LCD panel makers were listed, you would recognize them all.

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Past Articles on Subject:

FLEXIBLE TV    July 2002

Waiting For OLEDS  June 2004

Here Comes SED  Sept 2004

Here Comes NED   Nov 2005

1080P and Beyond  April 2007

FLAT PANEL BIZ    July 2007

Sony OLED  Sept 2007