Canon - Page 3

Hitachi may scale down or exit its liquid crystal display (LCD) panel operations on the back of a deal with Matsushita Electric Industrial and Canon, the Nikkei business daily reported.

The firms have agreed to a tie-up on organic light-emitting diode (OLED) panels, a competing display technology, by which Matsushita and Canon would each invest more than 100 billion yen ($880 million) to take minority stakes in unit Hitachi Displays Ltd, it said.

In November 2007 Sony has started to sell their 11" OLED TV (the XEL-1). This is an exciting move by Sony, but this cannot be considered a real commercial OLED TV. They are only producing 2,000 of those units monthly, the price is extremely high - around 1,800$ for a 11" TV (and Sony admits they are losing money on each unit). Even the power consumption of those TVs is rather high - higher than compatible LCDs.

But still Sony is clearly committed to OLEDs - and it seems like they are betting the future of their TV business on OLEDs. Sony were late to the Flat-Panel TV "party" and are no longer considered innovators. Now they are trying to be in the forefront of the technology again, and OLEDs is their technology of choice.

Canon said it aims to take a majority stake in Tokki, a supplier of flat panel-making equipment, for $69 million or more to speed development of OLED panels.

Canon has been developing OLED panels in a bid to replace liquid crystal display (LCD) panels, which it now procures from outside suppliers for digital camera, camcorder and printer displays. Canon said it may offer small-sized flat TVs using OLED displays in the future, and will use SED for large-sized TVs.

Canon and Toshiba have been developing their SED technology since 1999 and the launch had originally been delayed until July 2007. That date has now slipped to the end of 2007.

Canon blamed part of the delay on the falling price of flat-panel TVs and said it needed to improve the efficiency of its mass production facilities.

A Texan judge ruled in a summary judgment that Canon did indeed violate the terms of the technology licensing agreement with Nano-Proprietary by bringing Toshiba in as a partner in SED manufacturing. The court has yet to determine what damage this has caused, but at this point a monetary fine may not be the worst of what Canon will undergo in continuing in SED production.

Unless Canon is successful in appealing the judgment, the company will have to renegotiate a new licensing agreement for Nano-Proprietary's technology if it is going to continue with plans to produce SED displays. With Canon now on the defensive it remains to be seen how aggressively Nano-Proprietary will leverage its apparent legal advantage. Regardless, the recent ruling will likely lead Canon to pause its plans for SED manufacturing yet again.

Canon and Toshiba today announced an agreement by which Canon will purchase from Toshiba all of Toshiba's outstanding shares of SED Inc., which was jointly established by both companies. On completion of the purchase, SED Inc. will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Canon, effective January 29, 2007.

The decision was reached following discussions between Canon and Toshiba based on the assumption of prolonged litigation pending against Canon in the United States with respect to SED technology. As a result of the discussions, it was decided that Canon will carry out the SED panel business independently in order to facilitate the earliest possible launch of a commercial SED television business.

SED television sets are to be introduced in Japan in the fourth quarter of this year as originally scheduled, although Canon will reassess its future mass-production plans for SED panels.

Toshiba and Canon have decided to postpone their plans to invest in SED mass production, because of a patent infringement lawsuit they have made against a US company that provides SED technology to Toshiba. The original plan was to start producing in summer 2007, but they will delay the investment till the outcome of the lawsuit.

Read more here (DisplayBank)

Canon said that they will start to build SED TVs in 2008.

Canon and Toshiba have been working on SED since 2004 in a joint venture.

Canon has demonstrated a prototype digital SLR camera using an OLED display, which will help extend battery life and be easier for photographers to view. Unlike traditional LCD screens, which use coloured filters and a backlight, an OLED generates its own light. This improves the screen's viewing angles and lowers power consumption, both of which are very useful for digital cameras.

Canon’s OLED demonstration used a 2.4" screen with QVGA (320 x 240) resolution, which delivered a bright and detailed image with 167 pixels per inch (ppi).

Canon, the world's largest maker of cameras and copiers, is to enter the TV panel market next year and expand its overall business to generate more than €40 billion ($A63.4 billion) in annual sales by 2010.

Canon would be working on developing three types of display technologies: SED panels, organic light-emitting diode displays (OLED) and projection displays.

Canon is aiming to use OLED panels in its digital cameras, printers and camcorders from 2007 as replacement for liquid crystal displays (LCDs).

Read more here