Proview unveils flat-screen TVs

Proview International Holdings Ltd (唯冠), the world's No. 4 computer monitor maker, yesterday unveiled its first batch of flat-screen televisions for the home market as part of its increased efforts to tap into the digital TV industry.

The move came soon after the Hong-Kong-listed company aborted a deal with Motorola Inc last Friday to jointly develop these stylish and pricey TV sets in Asia, and China in particular.

Proview on Friday canceled its partnership with the world's No. 2 handset vendor to jointly develop and sell liquid-crystal display (LCD) TVs through its fully-owned affiliate Moxell Technology (摩希爾), the company said in a filing to the Hong Kong securities regulator, the Hong Kong Exchange and Clearing Ltd.

"After severing the ties, we now have more leeway in formulating strategies for our brand-name slim TVs," said James Tseng (曾煥榮), a vice president of Mag Technology Co (美格科技), the Taiwan branch of Proview.

"We aren't seeing the whole thing entirely from a negative perspective," he said.

Proview acquired smaller rival Mag Technology in early 2000 when the latter was beleaguered by financial troubles.

During yesterday's launch, Proview displayed a wide range of slim-screen TVs under the Mag brand, including LCD TVs and plasma-display-panel (PDP) TVs.

In the initial stage, Proview aims to sell a total of 3,000 TV sets in the domestic market by the end of the year and hopes to boost sales to a total of 24,000 sets next year, riding on the fast-growing flat-panel TV market around the world, Tseng said.

"Flat-panel TVs are still too expensive for the mass market. But we believe prices will drop further to approach a more affordable level next year in response to the ongoing decline of panel prices," he said.

According to the latest forecast by market researcher International Data Corp (IDC), global LCD TV sales are expected to shoot up by over 70 percent next year to 13.8 million from less than 8 million estimated for this year, driven by lower prices. PDP TV sales are expected to rise to 3.8 million sets next year from 2.2 million this year, IDC said.

Proview is not the only company looking to the flat-panel TV market as new growth area. HannStar Display Corp (瀚宇彩晶), a LCD panel maker, is also gearing up to join fellow LCD panel makers, including AU Optronics Corp (友達光電) and Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp (奇美電子), to roll out own-brand TVs.

HannStar is set to roll out its first TVs under the brand of Hannspree (瀚斯寶麗) in Taipei later this month to enhance its control over market demand. This would also aid its efforts to digest its overproduction of LCD panels.

Commenting on the moves of making inroad into consumer electronics sector, Ken Yu (余文耀), an analyst with SinoPac Securities Corp (建華證券), said “It will be a challenge for the two electronics manufacturers to run a consumer electronics brand. Big computer companies like Del Inc is still unable to overcome difficulties to boost sales.”