Toshiba Delays U.S. Launch of SED Flat-Panel TVs to Mid- 2006
Toshiba postponed until mid-2006 a U.S. introduction of flat-panel TVs based on the surface conductor electron emitter display (SED) technology it’s developing jointly with Canon, Vp Scott Ramirez told Consumer Electronics Daily.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
If your job depends on informed compliance, you need International Trade Today. Delivered every business day and available any time online, only International Trade Today helps you stay current on the increasingly complex international trade regulatory environment.
Toshiba had hoped to ship the first SED-based TVs to the U.S. late this year in sizes 50W and up. The new schedule calls for the SED TVs to launch in Japan early in 2006 before being exported to the U.S., Ramirez said. Initial volumes through 2006 at Canon’s Hiratsuka, Japan, factory are expected to be low -- 3,000 units per month. SED will shift to higher volume in 2007, moving to a new facility with monthly capacity of 75,000 units. The Toshiba-Canon joint venture -- SED Inc. -- debuted last fall and is expected to start pre-production during the 3rd or 4th quarter, Ramirez said.
Canon, which has been developing SED since 1986, showed its first prototype 10 years later -- a 3.1” version with 640 candelas. Canon and Toshiba began cooperating in the sector in 1999, and several times have planned demonstrations, only to postpone them, as occurred in 2003. The technology is expected to target 50W and up sizes at the start. SED Inc. showed a 36” SED prototype at CES in Jan. with 1,280x720p resolution, 300 lumens and a less-than-1-millisecond response time.
Meanwhile, Toshiba will start shipping its Gigabeat digital audio players in the U.S. by month’s end, joining a market led so far by one of its top hard drive customers, Apple Computer, Toshiba told a N.Y.C. news conference Tues. Gigabeat players use 1.8” Toshiba-made hard drives with 10-60 GB storage - essentially the same models as those that shipped in Japan last fall, except for redesigned software interfaces, Toshiba executives said.
Despite a potential for conflict with Apple, which has shipped iPod digital audio players with 60 GB drives, Toshiba officials said the growing market can accommodate another entrant. The Gigabeat line offers 4 models with 10 ($249), 20 ($329), 40 ($399) and 60 GB ($449) capacities, each available in several colors, including silver, black and brushed aluminum “champagne” (40 GB) and “steel” (60 GB), company officials said. The players have a Toshiba-made 2.2” low-temperature polysilicon 2.2” color LCD with 320x240-pixel resolution, 128 MB of flash memory, a USB 2.0 connector and a lithium ion battery with 16-hour run time. Features include a “CD Rip Rec” that, accessed via a button on a cradle that ships with the Gigabeat player, can transfer a CD’s content to the device in less than 5 min., Toshiba said.
Toshiba is working to make Gigabeats compatible with NapsterToGo and Microsoft’s PlaysForSure services, a spokesman said. Gigabeat players will “have them by the time we ship, that’s our goal,” he said. In promoting the new players, Toshiba has a promotional deal with Universal Music’s Motown Records Group offering Gigabeat buyers free downloads of 9-10 songs from that label’s new artists from giga-style.com, Toshiba officials said.
Gigabeats are cued to that site by a pre-loaded “sizzle track” that directs them to giga-style.com. At the Web site, songs can be downloaded by entering the player’ serial number, Toshiba officials said. Toshiba will highlight the Gigabeat’s 2.2” LCD through “Because Music is Better in Color” commercials airing this spring on Comedy Channel, MTV, VH-1 and TV Land, augmented by print and online ads in Rolling Stone magazine, company officials said. The ads will feature bands Blues Traveler, Vendetta Red and Joan Jett and the Blackhearts.