"Last year we saw about 30 percent of price reductions for plasma and a little bit more for LCD. Next year, in 2007, we expect about the same," Young Chan Kim, head of global marketing for LG's displays division told journalists at the IFA consumer electronics show.
LG reiterated its goal to become the world's No. 1 display company by 2007. It is currently the second-biggest plasma television producer and the fifth-biggest LCD television set producer, according to market research group DisplaySearch.
LCD and plasma are two different types of flat display technologies, and Kim said he expected the two to co-exist for some time, with plasma targeting the bigger screen sizes from 42 inch diagonal and beyond.
Although plasma TVs of 42 inches were still cheaper than LCD sets, LCD technology was closing the price gap with plasma quickly, he added.
LG said it would start selling its first Full High Definition (Full HD) LCD television set this year, a 47-inch product, alongside 60 and 70-inch Full HD plasma sets. Smaller and more affordable versions, a 37-inch Full HD LCD set and a 50-inch Full HD plasma set would follow as early as in the first half of 2007.
Full HD sets, with more pixels than "HD-ready" sets that are already on sale, are being announced by the television manufacturing industry at this IFA. They promise to display all the detail of high definition broadcasts.
LG's European president James Kim said LG expects to sell 2 million units of its "chocolate" mobile phone in Europe this year. LG's thin, touch-button slider phone was introduced in Asia last year and in Europe in the spring of 2006. It competes with other designer models like Motorola's RAZR, and the high-margin phone is important in LG's attempt to get the world's fifth-biggest phone maker back to profitability.
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