LG Pins High Hopes on EU PDP Market
By Kim Yoo-chul
Staff Reporter
Despite growing concerns over falling profitability stemming from a drop in prices of more than 40-inch PDP TVs, LG Electronics still pins high hopes on Europe while focusing on 42-inch PDP models.
On Thursday, LG said its 42-inch flat-panel plasma TV set ranked top in that category in Spain in a survey conducted by Audio Video Foto Magazine.
The results came after LG’s 42-inch PDP code-named 42PT85 had been lauded for picture quality, user friendliness, price competitiveness and enhanced power efficiency.
Market analysts, however, expect the proportion of 40-inch PDP sets to fall to 42 percent of the total as manufacturers have been aggressively pushing single-scan 50 inch full high-definition modules, which makes it possible to save more costs.
``We will put more focus on increasing shipments of 32- and 42-inch PDP TV sets in Europe,’’ an LG official said.
Separately, LG released its first 32-inch plasma TVs two months ago in the belief that the large-sized market has become saturated. LG will produce 600,000 to 700,000 TVs in order to take 2 to 3 percent of the 32-inch flat-panel TV market.
According to the data from DisplayBank, a market research firm, the PDP market will rise 27 percent to reach 15.6 million in 2008 on improved profitability.