LG Electronics Inc claims to have developed the world’s thinnest and largest wall-mounted plasma display panel (PDP) TV sets. It said it will unveil 40-inch and 60-inch models at the 1999 Korea Electronics Show which opens later this week in Seoul. LG claims the new models are 7.8cm thick as compared to the 9-cm-thick PDP TVs produced by Japanese competitors. They are 12 times thinner than conventional CRT TVs with the same size screen. The TVs also have dramatically enhanced display quality, with 900 candela per square meter brightness and a 1000:1 contrast doubling the quality of Japanese products the company claims.
LG says it has also broken through a major barrier in the size of PDP TVs by developing a 60-inch model. The new design does away with a radiation fan, sharply reducing noise and power consumption which have been major obstacles to developing large-screen PDP TVs. The 60-inch HDTV can receiving both analog and digital signals can also be used as a PC monitor and a DVD player, the statement said.
LG will start exporting the units next year and plans to spend $750m on production facilities which will allow it to build up to a production capacity of 1.2 million units by 2005, giving it a 15% share of the world’s PDP market.
