SAN FRANCISCO, Aug 16 (Reuters) - In the latest of a series
of product delays, Intel Corp. has postponed the launch of a
video display chip it had previously planned to introduce by
year end, putting off a showdown with Texas Instruments Inc. in
the fast-growing market for high-definition television
displays.
Intel INTC spokeswoman Laura Anderson said on Monday
that the world's largest chip maker had decided to improve
picture quality before introducing the product, called liquid
crystal on silicon, or LCoS. She declined to specify a new date
for releasing the product.
The product delay was not caused by technical problems,
Intel's Anderson said.
It nonetheless adds to a string of missed deadlines by the
chip supplier, whose timelines for product roll-outs are relied
upon by electronics makers around the world. A series of delays
of notebook and desktop computer chips led Chief Executive
Craig Barrett to send a terse letter to Intel's 80,000 workers
last month.
LCoS is one of three competing technologies for large-screen
rear projection televisions, which are thinner than standard
cathode-ray tube sets and generally less expensive than sleek
plasma-based television sets that have become a must-have
gadget among some technology enthusiasts.
An estimated 1.3 million rear-projection sets were sold
last year, and another 2.7 million sets are expected to be sold
this year, according to Insight Media, which publishes a
newsletter on microdisplays.
Today, that market is mostly shared by Texas Instruments
TXN, which has turned its Digital Light Processing
technology into a major venture, and Japan's Sony Corp.
6758.TK, which has taken a strong market position with liquid
crystal-based rear-projection sets.
Intel was to be the third major entrant, adopting a less
market-tested technology that combines a liquid crystal panel
with a silicon-based microchip. Intel saw in LCoS a way to
improve picture quality in the same manner that it increases
the speed of its computer chips.
At a consumer electronics trade show in Las Vegas in
January, Intel announced that it would have products out by the
end of the year, and that display manufacturers were already
working with its prototypes.
Intel appears to have erred by focusing its product plans
on one-megapixel displays, which have one million individual
picture points, or pixels, when TV set makers were eager for
products that can accommodate two megapixels, said Chris
Chinnock, president of Insight Media, the publisher of
newsletter Microdisplay Report.
"This strategic decision is just an acknowledgment of the
reality of the LCoS market right now, and the reality is that
what customers want is next-generation technology out of LCoS,"
Chinnock said.
Intel shares rose 9 cents, or less than 1 percent, to
$21.65 on the Nasdaq.
((Editing by Brian Perry;
of product delays, Intel Corp. has postponed the launch of a
video display chip it had previously planned to introduce by
year end, putting off a showdown with Texas Instruments Inc. in
the fast-growing market for high-definition television
displays.
Intel INTC spokeswoman Laura Anderson said on Monday
that the world's largest chip maker had decided to improve
picture quality before introducing the product, called liquid
crystal on silicon, or LCoS. She declined to specify a new date
for releasing the product.
The product delay was not caused by technical problems,
Intel's Anderson said.
It nonetheless adds to a string of missed deadlines by the
chip supplier, whose timelines for product roll-outs are relied
upon by electronics makers around the world. A series of delays
of notebook and desktop computer chips led Chief Executive
Craig Barrett to send a terse letter to Intel's 80,000 workers
last month.
LCoS is one of three competing technologies for large-screen
rear projection televisions, which are thinner than standard
cathode-ray tube sets and generally less expensive than sleek
plasma-based television sets that have become a must-have
gadget among some technology enthusiasts.
An estimated 1.3 million rear-projection sets were sold
last year, and another 2.7 million sets are expected to be sold
this year, according to Insight Media, which publishes a
newsletter on microdisplays.
Today, that market is mostly shared by Texas Instruments
TXN, which has turned its Digital Light Processing
technology into a major venture, and Japan's Sony Corp.
6758.TK, which has taken a strong market position with liquid
crystal-based rear-projection sets.
Intel was to be the third major entrant, adopting a less
market-tested technology that combines a liquid crystal panel
with a silicon-based microchip. Intel saw in LCoS a way to
improve picture quality in the same manner that it increases
the speed of its computer chips.
At a consumer electronics trade show in Las Vegas in
January, Intel announced that it would have products out by the
end of the year, and that display manufacturers were already
working with its prototypes.
Intel appears to have erred by focusing its product plans
on one-megapixel displays, which have one million individual
picture points, or pixels, when TV set makers were eager for
products that can accommodate two megapixels, said Chris
Chinnock, president of Insight Media, the publisher of
newsletter Microdisplay Report.
"This strategic decision is just an acknowledgment of the
reality of the LCoS market right now, and the reality is that
what customers want is next-generation technology out of LCoS,"
Chinnock said.
Intel shares rose 9 cents, or less than 1 percent, to
$21.65 on the Nasdaq.
((Editing by Brian Perry;
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