Samsung has introduced a new TFT-LCD product line the company says offers high-performance, low-cost 19-inch high-resolution SXGA and UXGA TFT-LCDs and six 17-inch TFT-LCDs that are specifically tailored for TFT-monitor and TV applications.
In fact, Samsung is touting its new line of TFT-LCDs as “the next-generation desktop standard” and forecasting that its 17-inch TFT-LCD line will be the industry’s top-selling displays by 2005. Last year the company achieved or maintained “Best Supplier Status” with a variety of computer companies, including Apple. And in 1999, Apple invested US$100 million in the company.
To be marketed under the WiseView brand, Samsung’s 19- and 17-inch TFT-LCDs incorporate the company’s patented Patterned Vertical Alignment technology to achieve up to a 500:1 contrast ratio, 25ms and better response time for television picture rates, up to a 170-degree wide conical viewing angle, an enhanced brightness of up to 450 nits and a high production yield through this standard TFT-LCD process, according to Tom Quinn, Samsung ‘s vice president of marketing. What’s more, he said that the 17-inch line would be offered “close to price parity with most other manufacturers’ current 15-inch TFT-LCDs.”
Samsung’s fifth-generation production line enables it to produce either nine 19-inch or twelve 17-inch TFT-LCDs from one single substrate. Company officials are forecasting that the lower cost of these high-performance TFT-LCDs will accelerate the move toward flat-panel TFT-LCD displays for desktop and TV use, a movement driven by their small form factor, light weight, low power consumption and low heat generation compared to CRT displays commonly in use today.