Samsung claims flat screen sales rise, or fall

GIANT KOREAN chaebol Samsung told Bloomberg that sales of flat screens and NAND memories are on the up and up in its first quarter.

That will cheer and encourage les autres, who have seen a slump in flat panel sales for nearly a whole year now.

According to Bloomberg, in the Taipei Times, average selling prices on LCD panels have onl;y fallen by five per cent since the beginning of this year.

However, that Bloomberg report is contradicted by another source.

Price falls for LCD flat panels won't stop until the fourth quarter. Flat screen TV demand hasn't lived up to expectations and is only slightly better for computer flat screen LCDs say analysts.

At a product launch a Samsung executive told Reuters that LCD prices won't rebound until the fourth quarter but that they will definitely rise by Q4 as demand continues to pick up.

The news came as Samsung said it had developed the world's largest LCD panel, an 82-inch (208 cm) screen up from a 65-inch LCD TV from Sharp.

Samsung said it would be at least 18 months before it mass produced the new panel.

The Reuters article is here. Said Peter Gamby, principal analyst at Meko, while there's an expectation that prices will stabilise, many panel makers are still selling their products at cost.

He said: "It was fairly clear that LG and Samsung were the only people making money at the end of last year."

Further, said Gamby, such forecasts are unlikely to affect street prices. The channel still has room to manoeuvre.

That means that there is still stock floating around that the shifters have to shift.

Samsung's sweet spot are 19-inch panels, while the 15-inch and 17-inch models don't make for happy times. µ

L'INQ
Meko