Hitachi, Canon and Matsushita Team Up on LCD

Considering the growing usage of LCD for TVs, cellphones, digital cameras, PCs, and gaming consoles combined with strong demand for high quality at very low prices, major consumer electronic companies Hitachi, Matsushita Electric Industrial, and Canon Inc. have forged a multi-billion alliance to reinforce and grow the LCD panel businesses and technologies.

Hitachi will contribute its sophisticated, world-acclaimed In-Plane Switching (“IPS”) technology for LCD production. Matsushita will bring its global leadership in the flat-panel TV while Canon will share its expertise in fields of camera, medical equipment, and printer. Since this industry requires heavy investments, the combined forces of these companies will help spread the expenses and accelerate the development of better technologies while keeping the costs low.

What’s in it for each company? For Canon, it means faster development of organic light-emitting diode (“OLED”) displays while Hitachi can strengthen its competitiveness in the flat-panel LCD TV for it can now create the world’s thinnest flat-panel LCD TV and its ultra-thin flat-panel LCD TVs “Wooo UT series.” Matsushita, on the other hand, can gain deeper participation in selling and marketing of IPS liquid crystal panels for large TVs among other things.

Of course, the biggest winners are the consumers for we can enjoy better technologies at relatively lower prices in the near future.

via Engadget