Technology heavyweights including Texas Instruments (TI) of the United States are making fast moves to promote adoption of digital light processing, or DLP technology.
LG Electronics, which had remained hesitant to foray into the DLP projection TV market, is poised to roll out a 44-inch and a 55-inch DLP TV in the domestic market later this month, according to the company. The new TVs will be installed with both analogue and digital tuners and provide a high resolution of 1280 x 720.
LG Electronics` entrance in the market is expected to give fresh lifeline into the DLP market, which has so far been led by sole provider Samsung Electronics.
TI is aggressively tapping partnership deals with small and medium firms, and plans to launch a DLP cinema in Korea. It has teamed up with theater providers such as Artleon and Mega Box to build a DLP theater, and is set to host a launching ceremony in the COEX Mega Box on November 11 and 12.
"Unlike earlier forecasts that demand for DLP would decline facing the fast-growing thin film displays, the market is now expected to grow significantly this year," said John Van Scoter, Vice CEO and head of DLP business unit of TI. "We will maintain the price of DLP TVs at about a half compared to PDP TVs to continue promoting DLP in the consumer market."
"Despite relatively expensive prices, consumers are looking for DLP projection TVs, which outperform PDP in lifespan, contrast and response speed," said a manager at Samsung Electronics. "DLP is expected to take some 25% of the projection TV market this year, and the figure will likely increase to 40 and 50% next year."
TI, having decided to focus on the fast-growing Korean digital TV market, has been toiling on DLP TVs in league with Samsung Electronics. TI aims to generate demand for DLP in Korea by launching a DLP cinema for digital movies. The company is also set to roll out high-performance DLP TVs that boost contrast up to 3000 to 1 and 4000 to 1 next year.
The DLP projection TV market began to take shape last year as Samsung Electronics, RCA Thopmson, Loebe and Sagem introduced digital light processing TVs using TI`s source technology.
Samsung Electronics released its first DLP projection TV in the second half of last year, and has contributed to boosting the proportion of DLP in the home projection TV market from 20% early this year to the present 30%. Fifty-inch and 61-inch large screen products have also begun to hit the market.
The global DLP TV market is expected to reach around 300,000 to 400,000 units this year.