Photo: Aidan Jones /Flickr
After only a short courtship, two of the world's largest electronics manufacturers will come together to build an obscenely large, technologically advanced LCD panel-making factory, and if they're as successful as they think they will be, they won't have to suffer the night-after hookup remorse.
Sharp VPs set-up the Sony deal during their CES 2008 keynote by placing the ambitious goal of becoming the world leader in LCD manufacturing, but the scope of the building project, estimated at $3.5 Billion, obviously needed a partner to offset costs.
In addition, matching two large, well-known companies to increase production will help them combat the lower-tiered competitors that are already producing LCDs at a record pace (most of them in Korea). These LCDs are often at the same level of quality, and the cheap manufacturers sell them to upstart companies like Olevia and Vizio, who then sell them to consumers at a cheaper rate. (See Wired's Top TV from last year.)
According to the Times, Sony will put in about 35% of the amount of the factory's cost, and will receive about the same percentage of the panels produced.
Sharp said the factory will produce six LCD panels in the 60-inch class, eight panels in the 50-inch class or 15 panels in the 40-inch class on each sheet, and if they make the 36,000 glass sheets per month they anticipate to begin with, that will be a few mil per year.
Why should this deal matter to the consumer bottom line? Well, the sheets of glass to be used to make the LCDs will be larger than ever before, which will save both companies money on a per-inch basis, increase availability, and allow them to continue to bring down the price of their displays (well maybe not Sony's WXYZ49BLAHDIDDLY 52” premium screen).
If you've been following the display market for the last couple of years, you know that the increased performance (and available sizes) of LCD panels has cut deeply into the profits of the generally more expensive Plasmas. Factories like these will lead the boom, at least, until the larger OLEDs start to come out.
