KEY POINTS:
Thinner, brighter, more power-efficient. That's the Holy Trinity television makers are seeking as they vie for market share in an industry where prices of flat-screen TVs are falling at a rate of 30 per cent per year.
The cut-throat competition has led electronics makers to develop new display technologies to try to gain a competitive edge.
That was obvious at the Ceatec consumer electronics show in Tokyo this week, where Japanese electronics giant Sony unveiled its first TVs based on organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology.
OLED screens differ from the currently dominant LCD screens in that they don't require a back-lit panel and can therefore be much thinner and use less power.
The screens are currently expensive - Sony will sell an 11-inch version in Japan from December for US$1700 ($2230).
Screen size is also limited, so LCD will remain the dominant format, with TV shipments expected to double to 110 million in 2009, according to research firm DisplaySearch.
LCD TVs are getting much thinner in their own right - Hitachi displayed new prototype 32-inch LCD TVs at Ceatec that are just 19mm thick. They will go on sale in Japan this year.
"They'll create a new category of LCD in themselves," said Hitachi's US vice-president Daniel Lee, as he demonstrated the new TVs for the Business Herald.
Meanwhile, Panasonic continues to back plasma technology for large screens, despite the increasing popularity of LCD. Panasonic has invested heavily in plasma screen factories in Japan and has recently boosted capacity again in anticipation of greater demand for its screens next year.
While the economics of the TV business are more than ever about increasing sales to bring down production costs, Panasonic says the sales-driven mentality of the industry has had to change.
"It was supply, supply, supply, reasonable cost, cheap cost," president Fumio Ohtsubo said.
"At present we have to focus on environmental protection, recycling, lead-free, lower power consumption, minimising CO2 ... we have to understand present global environmental problems."
The Japanese electronics giant has for years followed a philosophy of fast growth and healthy sales. But the green movement has taken hold in the electronics industry and led to a new emphasis on sustainability.
Toshihiro Sakamoto, the president of Panasonic's AVC Networks company, said that in the key market for flat-screen TVs 37 inches and above, global market share favoured LCD 65 per cent to 35 per cent for plasma.
Although the LCDs on display at Ceatec this year would appear to eliminate any advantage plasma screens have traditionally had, such as better contrast ratio and a wider viewing angle, Sakamoto claims there's plenty of life left in plasma which could offer brighter, more power-efficient screens.
"LCD has a longer history of development than plasma, which has a lot more room to improve especially in the areas of contrast and brightness," he said.
Panasonic, with other plasma supporters Hitachi, Pioneer and with funding from the Japanese Government, had formed the Advanced PDP (plasma) Development Centre which was jointly developing new plasma technology.
"We've already finished developing a five-lumen powered bright plasma screen," said Sakamoto. "It's much brighter than LCD TV. From here we're trying to develop 10 lumen-power brightness, That is the direction."
Panasonic unveiled six new Blu-ray disc recorders at Ceatec, one of which offers the longest recording time for high-definition content in the industry.
Its one terabyte (1000 gigabyte) hard drive holds 381 hours of high-definition content, while the 50GB Blu-ray discs the drive plays can hold 18 hours of HD content.
The company also started an industry alliance to support power line communication - sending phone, internet and high-quality audio and video signals over a home's electrical wiring, cutting out the need to run fibre optic and audio-visual cables through the house.
But the real battleground in consumer electronics is in the TV space, because the flat panel screen is increasingly at the centre of the digital home.
Win the consumer over there, and other business in the form of home theatre purchases or high-definition players may follow.
TV TYPES
* LCD (liquid crystal display): The dominant flat-screen format. New models from Hitachi are just 19mm thick.
* Plasma: Favoured by Panasonic for large TVs. Has traditionally had better contrast ratio and a wider viewing angle than LCD.
* OLED (organic light-emitting diode): A new technology being used by Sony. Screens don't require a back-lit panel like LCD so they can be thinner and use less power.
Peter Griffin attended Ceatec as a guest of Panasonic.
