GE and Tatung in Joint Venture

General Electric (GE) and Tatung, one of Taiwan's renown 3C companies, have entered into a joint venture to produce "innovative HDTV" i.e. high-definition TVs. AFP reports:

US conglomerate General Electric announced on Tuesday that it had entered into a joint venture with Taiwan's Tatung Co. to produce innovative high-definition television sets.

The joint venture, General Displays & Technologies (GDT), will "design, market and service GE-branded HDTVs" with the first sets hitting the market early next year, GE said in a statement.

GDT chief executive Marc McConnaughey said the new HDTVs would bring a step closer to the goal of merging the Internet and television experience without a personal computer.

"We are developing advanced, Internet capabilities for content delivery to televisions, without the need for a PC," he said.

"This includes Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) through cable, satellite and advanced fiber-optic television connectivity," McConnaughey said.

"The long-term strategy is to allow consumers to customize their viewing experience by downloading widgets and a variety of services directly to their HDTVs."

The JV is interesting and will I am sure leverage the strengths of both companies. the IPTV are certainly the next generation of TVs and the development of these devices and set top boxes has become more important in Taiwan over the previous year. See for example News from Computex: Notebooks and STB.

AFP: GE, Taiwan's Tatung team up on HDTVs

News from Computex: Notebooks and STB

According to Computex, the notebook computer industry is set for growth in 2008. Growth is being generated by decreased price differentials between notebooks and desktops. The good news for consumers is that notebooks will become cheaper. Computex reports:

"Followed by the trend of price gap reduction on Notebook (NB) and Desktop (DT) computer and demand of mobility and replacement of DT by NB, global NB market will grow 24.7% in 2008 with total shipping volumes of 11,600 units. As a result, average price of NB will be sliding gradually. In order to seize the trend of multi-media development, seventeen-inch wide screen has become the major force to surpass the volume of standard NB panel with the size of 14 and 15 inches. It is highly anticipated that wide screen panel will rise sharply to fill 89.7% of total NB monitors in 2007, and the share will further mount to 100% to force the standard type out of the market in 2008."

Computex also says the Taiwanese IP STB (internet protocol set top box) industry is expected to continue its prodigious growth. Computex reports:

"...high growth of the Taiwanese IP STB (Internet Protocol Set-Top-Box) industry is expected to continue, boosting the industry's global shipment share, due to the influx of contract-production orders from major branded vendors and more orders from US and European telecom carriers. Shipment volume of the Taiwanese IP STB industry in the fourth quarter of 2007 was estimated at approximately 1.1 million units, representing year-on-year growth of 190.5%. It is expected that shipment volume will increase 178.5% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2008, reaching 1.3 million units. And the IPTV development gradually has become mature in the future."