The flat panel TV fight between LG and Samsung, is set to get worse with both companies set to launch their new TV offering in Australia only days apart in April and both companies claiming that they have the best “Smart TV” and that their 3D TV technology is superior.Both Korean companies are now embroiled in a rare public mudslinging fight, about their rival 3D TV technologies with retailers telling ChannelNews that they are “utterly confused”.
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One Harvey Norman franchisee said “This fight over which 3D TV technology is best is going to be interesting, If we as retailers are confused how, do you think the poor old consumer is going to feel”.
The problem as we reported some weeks ago, is that each Korean company is backing a different technology. Only one type of panel will become industry standard.
It’s a bit like the Beta Vs VHS or Blu ray Vs HD DVD battle of years past said one dealer.
Park Kang-ho, analyst at Daishin Securities, also compares the Samsung-LG battle with the clash over video formats 30 years ago – Sony’s Betamax versus JVC’s Video Home System, which JVC ultimately won.
DisplaySearch forecast that 3D TVs will account for more than 40 per cent of global flat screen TV sales by 2014, with the technology built in as standard alongside new Internet TV capabilities that allows consumers to download 3D movies from the Internet and view them.
Samsung is the global leader in TV’s with a 37.2 per cent market share, followed by Sony, Panasonic and LG with 5.6 per cent share.
Both Samsung and LG supply the core 3D component – the panel, to several non-Korean TV makers said the Financial Times which is what the fight is all about.
Samsung panels use active shutter glass (ASG) technology, which involves viewers wearing bulky battery-operated glasses to create 3D effects. Its panels are used in Sony’s 3D TVs. Sharp and Panasonic also use the same technology but manufacture their own panels.
ASG had been the dominant technology until this year, when LG came up with film patterned retarder technology (FPR), which applies a film to a TV screen and works with cheaper and lighter polarised glasses, similar to those worn in the cinema. LG’s panels have been adopted by Toshiba and Philips and several Chinese TV manufacturers who are now selling house brand TV’s in Australia.
