Fujitsu to enter LCD TV market

TOKYO: Japan's Fujitsu General Ltd. will launch a 37-inch LCD TV in North America and Europe in March, making a late entry into the fast-growing but highly competitive market, the Nikkei business daily said on Saturday.

Fujitsu General, which already offers plasma televisions, plans to start selling the advanced full high-definition, liquid crystal display (LCD) TV for $4,999 in North America for home theatre use, the newspaper said.

That will be twice to three times as expensive as other suppliers' 37-inch models, it said.

Fujitsu General would be facing stiff competition with larger rivals such as Sony Corp. and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. in the global LCD TV market, which DisplaySearch expects to grow 30 percent to $63 billion in 2007.

South Korea's Samsung and Tokyo-based Sony were the world's largest and second-largest LCD TV makers in the third quarter of 2006, according to the research firm.

Officials at Fujitsu General, an affiliate of electronics conglomerate Fujitsu Ltd., were not immediately available for comment.

Reuters