Hardware
Sony will take a 33% stake in Sharp's $3.5 billion liquid crystal display plant, which is set for completion by March 2010. Japanese flat-screen television makers are forming alliances as they try to secure enough panels while keeping initial investments in check to fight steep price declines. Sharp, which makes Aquos LCD televisions, plans to turn its LCD factory into a joint venture. The JV will also produce LCD modules and LCD driver chips. Global LCD television sales are expected to more than double to 155 million units by 2012, according to the Japan Electronics and Information Technology Association.
Semiconductors
Toshiba Corporation and IHI Corportation have denied a Yomiuri newspaper report that they are in talks to form a venture to build nuclear power plants. The paper said Toshiba and IHI are discussing starting a venture with annual sales of Ñ1 trillion ($9.5 billion), which would surpass revenues at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' power unit, which includes its nuclear plant business. Toshiba is targeting the US and China to more than triple nuclear sales by 2015. IHI, which corrected last fiscal year's profit to a loss after underestimating costs at a unit, is selling its unprofitable cement operations and is reorganising itself to revive earnings.
Telecommunications
NTT DoCoMo, Japan's largest wireless operator announced that it will offer free calls among family members to challenge similar discounts by KDDI and Softbank. Family members using DoCoMo's existing plan, which offers a 30% discount, can make calls and send e-mails to each other for free from April 1, the Tokyo-based company said in a statement. KDDI, Japan's second-largest mobile-phone company, last week stepped up competition in the $83 billion market by waiving call fees for family members, countering a plan by Softbank. DoCoMo also said it will raise monthly charges for the i- mode mobile internet service by 50% to Ñ315 from June 1 and will offer corporate customers a flat rate for domestic calls. The moves by DoCoMo will lead to a net sales reduction of Ñ30 billion in the year starting April 1, spokeswoman Makiko Furuta said.
Korea
Telecommunications
The slowdown in South KoreaÆs digital growth is pushing companies to expand into other entertainment sectors, while telecom and media companies are increasingly buying into the local music business. SM Entertainment (SME) spent most of 2007 spreading into areas including film production, new media, musicals and karaoke distribution. According to the company, total revenues have climbed sharply, not because of digital sales, but because of brand power in the past years. Digital music sales in Korea were worth $321.3 million in 2006, up from $297.4 million in 2005 compared to physical sales of just US$98.7million in 2006. The industry consensus is that digital sales leveled off last year, raising the pressure on labels and production companies to find new revenue streams by striking deals with non-music companies.
Mobile/wireless
South Korea's saturated mobile market is forcing local carriers looking for continued growth to move into the content business. Currently, there are more than 43 million mobile subscriptions in a country of 49 million people. KTF, Korea's second-largest mobile carrier, bought a controlling 35.3% stake in Seoul-based business-to-business retail music service provider Blue Code Technology for $20.7 million in December 2007. Blue Code provides music to more than 3,000 shopping centres and convenience stores, and KTF says the deal will allow it to expand into full digital and physical distribution. SK Telecom, South Korea's biggest mobile carrier, has been even more aggressive, buying music labels and distributors and putting some $30 million into three music investment funds. Meanwhile, CJ EntertainmentÆs music affiliate, MNet Media, teamed up with KTF in 2006 to operate a $10 million music investment fund that has invested in 11 local music labels and many individual performers' albums and live concerts.
Semiconductors
Adept Technology, a provider of intelligent vision-guided robotics and global robotics services, is expanding in Korea has signed up Han Shin Power Tech as an exclusive dealer in the country. Korea is presently the fourth largest robot market in the world with growing demand for high speed, intelligent robotics in labour-intensive and quality sensitive applications such as incasing, packaging, material handling, and assembly. Under the terms of the agreement, Han Shin Power Tech will sell Adept's complete portfolio of robotics, controls, vision and software products in Korea. Han Shin Power Tech is a factory automation and engineering solutions provider and robot systems dealer with over 35 years of experience in the business.
Hardware
Samsung Electronics has released what it claims to be the world's first plasma display panel television that supports three-dimensional imagery. The 3D Ready TV, which Samsung calls the ôPAVV Cannes 450ö, features a million-to-one contrast ratio and 3D content support. Users can enjoy 3D games or movies if they put on special glasses and their Cannes 450 is connected to a high-performance PC supporting 3D software. The new PDP TV comes in two screen sizes, a 42-inch model and a 50-inch model. Other companies and research institutes have tested 3D PDPs but Samsung claims it's the first to commercialise the technology.
Media, entertainment and gaming
An industrial source said that Yedang Online, DragonFly, T3 Entertainment, Mgame and NC Soft are following each other to announce a plan to develop a second installment of their best-selling games. This is part of a business strategy to enjoy the halo effect of the original games. Since 2006, these companies have failed to draw gamers' attention to the newest games and this is a safe way to attract gamers' enthusiasm to the second installment.
Korea's National Assembly passed a special act to turn analogue television broadcasting to digital television broadcasting and promote digital broadcasting, according to an announcement by the Ministry of Information and Communication. Under the act, land-based television broadcasters are required to stop analogue broadcasting before the end of 2012. The act also requires manufacturers to install receiving equipment for digital broadcasting in television monitors and related electronic goods. Policies are also required to smoothly provide broadcasting services for low-income people, such as welfare recipients, who fall under the National Basic Living Welfare Law. The act also demands making recommendations to the National Assembly and related agencies about support programs to adjust television broadcasting fees and improve advertising systems to take account of the costs that land-based TV broadcasting service providers will have to bear to swoitch from analogue to digital broadcasting.
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