BenQ Corp (
The emerging flat-screen TV business will see revenues soar to NT$10 billion next year from NT$2 billion this year, said Peter Chen (
The company yesterday rolled out three new flat-panel TV models, including one with a 46-inch screen. It expects to ship about 100,000 units of flat-panel televisions this year, with 20,000 going to Taiwanese consumers.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
"The growth in that area [flat-screen TV sales] will be very strong in 2004 as we already saw rising demand from end-users," said Jerry Wang (
In addition, the broadcasting of leading European soccer competitions and the Olympic Games in Athens next year will further spur the demand for such high-resolution TVs, Wang added.
The strong demand for liquid crystal displays and optical-disk related products have allowed BenQ to report its third-quarter profits surging by 59 percent to NT$2.23 billion from NT$1.40 billion earned a year ago, the company said in a statement yesterday.
For the first nine months, profits fell to NT$5.14 billion from NT$5.97 billion a year earlier, with its earnings per share declining to NT$2.49 from NT$3.5, the statement said. BenQ will hold its investor conference today to detail its earnings report and its outlook for this quarter.
The company currently ships about 80 percent of its LCD-TVs to two international vendors, which it declined to specify, on a contract basis, while producing the remaining 20 percent for BenQ-brand TVs.
"Large-sized LCD screens will be the dominant TV screen technology this year and next year when consumers consider replacing conventional cathode-ray-tube TVs," BenQ president Sheaffer Lee (
To boost flat-screen TV sales, local home appliance makers such as Teco Electric & Machinery Co (
BenQ decided to keep itself out of the price war and its new 46-inch LCD-TVs are priced at NT$299,000 each.
"We expect to see a price reduction next year, but the price drop won't be huge. And we won't plan to participate in the price war," Chen said.
As long as the supply of large-sized LCD panel remains tight, which will keep LCD prices higher, it will leave scant room for flat-screen TV makers to lower prices, he added. AU Optronics Corp (
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