Castel Could Lose SED TV From Toshiba
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Castel the Australian distributor of Toshiba CE products could lose Toshiba’s SED TV range.

A senior Japanese Toshiba executive has told SHN  that the new SED TV’s that are due in Australia mid 2007 may not be sold via Castel but via Toshiba Australia. the executive who did not want to go on record also said that Castel would need to invest a lot of marketing dollars to compete in the SED market and that this may be a problem for them.

Also talking in Japan  Yoshihide Fujii, Senior Vice President of the Toshiba Corporation. and President of the Digital Media Network Company claims that there is no hurry to launch the SED TV onto the Australian market. Speaking at a conference in Japan he said “There will be no other TV device than the PDP, LCD, organic EL and SED panels in the market over the next ten years so we don’t have to rush”. He insisted that Toshiba can fully impact the SED TV by launching it after establishing a volume production line at its Himeji Operations, instead of prompting the market release using the minimal amount of panels currently manufactured in a pilot line at a Canon plant.

Commenting on the delayed marketing schedule of the SED TV, which was initially slated to make a debut in late 2006, Fujii said, “We have not fixed the launch schedule yet. We are against a 2006 launch because the LCD and PDP TVs’ pricing is lowering and performance is improving faster than initially forecasted.

Fujii describes the SED TV’s picture quality as “significantly better than any other TV panel technologies,” and expects the pricing to have “a 10-20% premium on the price of PDP and LCD TVs.” On the other hand, to realise a panel with the SED’s genuine picture quality and a low cost that allows no more than a 10-20% premium on PDP and LCD TV prices” he said.

In a bid to cope with the faster-than-expected lowering of prices and advanced performance of the PDP and LCD Toshiba is revising its manufactured volumes., “We are currently revising the manufacturing process, panel structure and other factors,” said Fujii. He believes that it will not be too late to enter the SED market in or after 2007, in which Himaji Operations is slated to start operation, considering “Even as of 2010, prevailing screen sizes in the market will be those covered by the current LCD TV.” He seems to bet demand for the SED TV will grow greatly in and after 2010, in which demand for large screen TVs is predicted to rise further.