Hitachi and Matsushita team up on TVs

WITH WORLD PLUS DOG desperate to save every penny they can these days, electronics firms Hitachi and Matsushita have teamed up on the development and production of flat-panel TVs.

The two have been working together on a couple of things since 2005, but with the signing of this agreement the pair aim to become an even bigger player in the Plasma and LCD TV market.

To date, Hitachi and Matsushita have reached a memorandum of understanding, but have said they fully expect to sign the definitive agreement by the end of October.

Under the deal, Hitachi will stop making its own Plasma glass panel components, instead now sourcing them from Matsushita. The companies will also be jointly researching high-end Plasmas that are thinner and more energy-efficient.

As far as LCDs go, the two companies are already joint investors in IPS Alpha Technology, an LCD panel manufacturing company, and will be taking this further with discussions on jointly investing in assembly at overseas production bases.

This move probably isn't enough to scare Sony and the like, but for the many other mid-level brands that compete almost entirely on value for money, this could be very worrying indeed. µ