Rob Gillam

Schaub Lorenz’s 42 inch (106cm) LCD is directly challenging plasma at the $5999 price point, says distributor, International Dynamics.

It says the release of the Schaub Lorenz VMD 4200P LCD television signals a watershed period in the evolution of Australia’s flat-panel display market, which it says plasma has had a virtual monopoly hold on at this screen size.

International Dynamics says “From now on, consumers at this screen size will be faced with a choice of technologies. At the low end of the scale will be 480-line plasma screens, offering lower prices but also a lower resolution specification less than ideal for the demands of tomorrow’s media. At the top end of the scale will be high definition capable LCD and comparably priced plasma.

Picture quality will not be the only reason people will choose LCD over plasma. For some, the lower reflectivity characteristics that better LCD panels can offer will be enough reason alone. They will find an LCD TV can successfully operate in a sunlit room where a plasma panel will not.

In general, however, it will be a range of reasons why LCD can readily end up being preferred over plasma. Substantially lower power consumption, lower weight for greater ease of wall mounting, and less susceptibility to burn-in are just to name a few.

It is also expected that, as consumers become more educated, performance durability will become a key consideration. For unlike a plasma panel, an LCD panel can be expected to maintain its performance as reasonably close to showroom standard for the lifetime of the product.”

International Dynamics says the VMD 4200P offers a unique advantage over other LCD televisions in its price range in the form of the inclusion of the Viewell Engine. Originally developed as military and medical imaging technology, International Dynamics says this is an image-enhancing picture processor that provides multiple contextual reference points in terms of shading (large kernel operation). It says the difference this makes to picture quality is instantly demonstrable on screen and claims images look more three-dimensional, contrast is improved, colours are more credible and details appear better defined. It says the Viewell Engine’s effect can be observed on one half of the screen for a direct comparison.

A free High Definition set-top box (valued at $799) is included at no charge as an introductory offer.

Price:  $5999

See www.internationaldynamics.com.au

EXCLUSIVE: EC-Asia International Ltd, one of Singapore’s largest manufacturers of memory products is set to enter the local market from July 2006.

It will compete with the likes of SanDisk, Seagate and Kingston in the DRAM and flash memory categories using its ACEplus-branded products.

Sales & Marketing Director, Mr Ang Ah Sin, spoke exclusively with SmartHouse News and said EC-Asia, which was incorporated in 1993, has grown from being a distributor of computer components to a manufacturer of memory components with comprehensive testing capabilities.

Ang Ah Sin said EC-Asia International is an ASX-listed company (code ECI) “But we have traditionally very much been focusing on Northern Hemisphere markets, particularly China, Hong Kong and Europe, so have done very little in Australia, as yet.

“With the growth in demand for memory products, especially flash memory products for digital cameras and mobile phones, we are now looking at entering the Australian CE and IT & T markets. We have the capacity to design, manufacture and distribute a full range of memory products so we can meet the needs of different consumer markets.

“We understand that consumers today are very sophisticated and behave differently in different markets. In Singapore, for example, memory ownership is very common because the cost if very low – about AUD$15 for 128MB of mini SD memory – whereas the Australian market still consumes a lot of the lower-capacity memory products. We are currently evaluating the Austrailan consumer market to establish at which points we will enter, but expect to do so in our new fiscal year (July 2006).”

And how does EC-Asia plan to differentiate its ACEplus products from other local existing brands? “We are able to control our manufacturing costs so will always definitely be very price competitive,” says Ang Ah Sin. “And our products will make sense to consumers. Our research shows that consumers are often very confused about memory — memory write speeds, especially. We will attempt to educate consumers about how they should be selecting memory.

“We want consumers to see ACEplus as a responsible brand that is prepared to back its products and stand up and educate consumers about exactly what they’re buying so they understand the difference between our products and other products in the market. Also, so they can understand developments effecting memory, such as security issues. Mobile viruses, for example, are an expanding threat. We plan to address this online and in our marketing, and will tailor our approach to Austrailan consumers. We will also seek to work with security vendors. That’s definitely an objective for us.”

Ang Ah Sin says EC-Asia is partnered with an IT distribution company in Singapore, called AsiaPac and will be able to extend distribution reach to Australia, however, will be seeking local distribution partners and also examining OEM partnership opportunities. He says “Our fundamental requirement for local distributors will be those who are familiar with the memory space and who offer a creative model. We are looking for creativity, which means we will consider all possible channels to achieve a wide distribution. We are seeking those who are committed to set up a structure to support our model and ideally those who don’t have too many brands.”

Ang Ah Sin describes the storage market as rapidly evolving and, with ever decreasing costs and increasing storage capacities, envisages a time when consumers will store flash memory in albums rather than printed photos. “Memory will be affordable enough to leave labelled in an album to be viewed via a player and then returned, in the way printed photos currently are. That time isn’t too far off, given the cost of buying and processing film, much of which you end up discarding,” he says. “There will be a new shift in lifestyle photography, mobile phone storage and digital musical storage and we are confident ACEplus will be a sizeable part of that shift”.

See www.ecasiasg.com

Research In Motion (RIM) Asia Pacific Vice President, Norm Lo, says he guarantees the Blackberry brand’s continued presence in the Austrailan market, regardless of the outcome of the protracted legal battle between Research In Motion Ltd and NTP Inc.

NTP sued RIM in 2001 over patent infringement and is seeking closure of its email system. The eventual ruling could have implications for local service providers, such as Vodafone and Telstra. Many observers suspect RIM may develop alternative technology or perhaps pay what some say could be as much as a billion dollars to settle with patent-holding company NTP.

Norm Lo says, whatever the result, RIM is prepared for it. “”We have very strong contingency plans in place. We are in a very strong position from a legal and technical point of view. We’re confident of a favourable ruling. The US Patent and Trademarks Office has publicly stated its plan is to reject NTP’s claims and has issued actions against NTP. Moreover, NTP has publicly acknowledged that the patents are going to be invalid. That’s in the press.

“RIM has attempted in good faith to settle the matter and it’s not a small settlement – to the tune of USD$450 million.

We are very confident the court case, regardless of the outcome, will not impact our customers. We ultimately value our partner and customer relationships. Even if there happens to be an injunction, we’re never going to leave Blackberry users high and dry. I can definitely guarantee the continuation of Blackberry’s products and services in Australia. “

NTP’s meteoric financial performance is likely a large part of Norm Lo’s confidence in the company’s future. It reported $USD2.6 billion in total assets as at February 2005. Blackberry is NTP’s primary revenue stream and Blackberry global subscriber growth has increased exponentially, from 600 000 to 4.3 million in around two years. It has over 150 carriers in over 60 countries.

With growing figures such as these, it’s likely RIM can weather even a very expensive settlement with NTP – claimed by some to potentially be as high as $USD1 billion – or restructure its business to circumvent a patent ruling.

Mr Lo made the statement at the launch of Blackberry’s latest device, the 8700, which packs Intel’s beefy PXA70x cellular processor with XScale technology to handle multiple processing-intensive applications on the single chip. It has 64 MB flash memory and 16 MB SRAM working away behind the super-bright high-resolution colour LCD, which provides plenty of space to render the unit’s many pre-loaded and potential applications.