Japan's Sharp Corp. plans to launch sales of the world's largest high-definition 65-inch LCD TV in the Korean market in February, further intensifying competition in the country, industry sources said yesterday.

The 36-inch prototype has employed the configuration having two electron-emitters from its initial stage.

Anticipating massive demand to replace TV sets before the start of digital terrestrial broadcasting in Japan in 2011, manufacturers are competing fiercely this winter bonus season.

Royal Philips Electronics today announced its first TV-on-mobile solution for the US market, three months after launching its European solution.

TEL has high exposure to domestic chip makers, which are weaker than the foreign competitors. In addition, LCD equipment margins are below average.

Samsung announced a new technology to enhance the image quality of smaller-size LCD panels.

Based in Wuxi, Suntech claims it took only 3 yrs to boost annual capacity for polycrystalline silicon wafers by 50-megawatt. However, its goal is to develop multicrystalline silicon solar cells conversion efficiency rate of as much as 16%.

The UK government plans to start shutting off the analogue signal in 2008, with the country going 100 per cent digital by 2012.

The TDP-FF1A will go on sale January 2006 with the price tag of US$800.

The research firm said that total monitor shipments in Canada grew 2% year over year in the third quarter to 559,700 units with LCD monitors accounting for 438,496 (78%) of shipments versus 121,207 (22%) for CRT monitors.