Smaller manufacturers stuck with too many flat-panel screens as expected World Cup frenzy fizzles

Yuri Kageyama
Sun

A model displays a Sharp liquid-crystal TV in Tokyo. Some manufacturers are tackling a supply problem, while others are facing a glut of unsold large-screen TVs. Photograph by : Katsumi Kasahara, Associated Press

TOKYO — Makers of slim TVs are struggling with higher inventories, but the extent of the problem depends on each company’s position in the market: Smaller names are facing a glut of flat-panel screens while most of the top players say they’re playing catch-up to avoid shortages.

The contrasting fates underline how some companies have successfully jockeyed to gain an edge in liquid-crystal-display TVs by strengthening their brands and exercising control over the production of flat panels used in their sets.

Both brand and control over production helped when this summer’s World Cup failed to generate as much demand as had been expected. Electronics makers had timed the introduction of new sets to the matches, and retailers launched aggressive campaigns to sell new TVs.

Sony Corp. and Sharp Corp. of Japan as well as South Korea’s Samsung Electronics fared well while AU Optronics Corp. of Taiwan and LG Electronics of South Korea struggled. The Netherlands’ Royal Philips Electronics NV, which has an LCD panel partnership with LG, also stumbled.

“There were winners and losers — depending on the manufacturer,” said Yoshio Tamura, senior vice president of the research firm DisplaySearch Japan.

Tamura pointed to Sony, Sharp and Samsung as examples of companies that have greater control over the panels that are a key — and very expensive — component of a TV set. They can raise or lower production to meet demand as well as fine-tune their sets to offer more fashionable features.

Those high-end features also reinforce the brand and allow the big names to charge higher prices.

“What it boils down to is brand power,” said Toshiaki Nishimura, senior analyst at Yasuda Asset Management Co. in Tokyo, adding that TVs such as Sharp’s Aquos and Sony’s Bravia command greater global respect than those from Philips and other manufacturers.

Despite the World Cup woes, analysts expect about 40 million LCDs to ship this year.

Although prices are dropping on flat-panel TVs, they’re still steep compared with the cathode-ray-tube models. And buyers spending a couple of thousand of dollars on a 40-inch or larger TV, aren’t about to snatch up just anything, said Mikio Katayama, who oversees Sharp’s LCD business.

Last week, the Osaka-based manufacturer said it will start up its second LCD plant two months ahead of schedule, to stay ahead of rivals for year-end shopping.

Sharp expects to sell six million LCD TVs worldwide in fiscal 2006, and Katayama is hoping to grab as much as about 30 per cent of the U.S. market in 40-inch TVs during Christmas.

Sharp, which saw its April-June quarter profit soar 23 per cent to $209 million US, sold nearly 1.13 million LCD TVs worldwide during that period, up 50 per cent from 755,000 LCD TVs the same period the previous year. Sharp expects to sell six million LCD TVs worldwide during the fiscal year ending March 2007, up from four million in the fiscal year that ended March 31.

Sony, which has struggled to restore profitability in its TV operations after falling behind Sharp and others, is making a comeback.

“To watch poor quality images on a large screen is probably hard to take for a lot of consumers,” said Sony senior vice-president Takao Yuhara. “I think consumers understand what the Bravia brand stands for.”

© The Vancouver Sun 2006

Back up data, use tracking device, Absolute Software says

Marke Andrews
Sun

Absolute Software, whose Computrace technology is embedded in laptops made by Lenovo, Dell, HP, Gateway and Fujitsu, have issued suggestions for travellers who are no longer allowed to use computers on flights to and from Britain. Photograph by : Vancouver Sun Illustration

A Vancouver company specializing in computer theft recovery and data protection advises travellers to the United Kingdom who must check in their laptops with their luggage to back up data before boarding and invest in tracking and recovery software.

Absolute Software, whose Computrace technology is embedded in laptops made by Lenovo, Dell, HP, Gateway and Fujitsu, have issued suggestions for travellers who are no longer allowed to use computers on flights to and from Britain.

All electronics have been banned from carry-on luggage after last week’s arrest of terrorist suspects who were planning to use the devices to trigger explosions on passenger airplanes bound for the United States. So far, Great Britain is alone in the ban, but other nations may follow the suit, including Canada and the U.S.

The tips issued by Absolute Software advise travellers to:

– Pack laptops in inconspicuous pieces of luggage to foil potential thieves.

– Lock the luggage.

– Pad computers with foam or bubble wrap.

– Shut down computers before transporting them.

– Keep the computer’s name and serial number with you, and back up data before travelling.

– Use complex or encrypted passwords to prevent thieves from accessing sensitive data.

– Carry portable storage devices such as memory sticks, zip drives and thumb drives.

– Invest in recovery and theft-tracking software and in data protection technology which wipes out the hard drive remotely should a computer be stolen.

“If a computer is missing, we can track it over the Internet and get it back with help from law enforcement,” says John Livingston, president and CEO of Absolute Software, adding that his company has nine individuals who handle specific theft cases.

In February 2005, Lenovo embedded Computrace into their laptop machines, and was followed by Gateway last July, HP in October, Dell in November and Fujitsu this past February.

Customers would have to subscribe to a service to trace their missing hardware.

“The customer needs to activate it similar to the way they activate anti-virus subscription,” says Livingston, of his company’s subscription service. “The customer activates the subscription, and then we begin to track the notebook, and if it goes missing or gets lost, we can recover it.”

– – –

Absolute Software enjoyed a record fiscal fourth quarter, according to figures it released Tuesday.

Sales contracts were up 66 per cent from the fourth quarter of 2005, totalling $8.4 million. Over the year, sales for the fiscal year are up 70 per cent over 2005.

Revenue was up from $2.3 million in last year’s fiscal fourth quarter to $3.4 million this year, a gain of 43 per cent. Cash flow increased 304 per cent, from $0.3 million to $1.3 million.

The company’s paid subscriber base increased from 440,000 on June 30, 2005, to 700,000 on June 30, 2006.

Livingston says the growing number of privacy bills, like California’s Senate Bill 1386, have helped Absolute Software’s bottom line.

“Alongside us building the market, computer security protection regulatory compliance concerns have really gained momentum in the United States with privacy bills,” says Livingston. “California Bill 1386 says that if you have third-party customer, employee or patient data, you have a legal responsibility to ensure that the data is properly protected.”

Livingston says the company’s work force has grown by almost 50 per cent in the past year, from 76 to 113.

© The Vancouver Sun 2006

SET AN EXAMPLE: Cut to the chase and summarize, expert suggests

Donna Nebenzahl
Province

Office e-mailers can be trained in brevity. Photograph by : The Associated Press file photo

I took a couple of weeks off recently — and there were more than 300 e-mails waiting when I returned.

A list that long, no matter how many are duds, means a bunch of stressful hours deleting, answering queries or running around trying to figure out those answers.

Doesn’t matter that I’ve left an “out-of-office” reply on my e-mail. Unlike the “out-of-office” phone reply, which gives the person calling the opportunity to hang up, this one shows up only after the message is sent.

What’s the point of that?

Add to that the ease of sending e-mails for every little thing, and it’s no wonder we’re overwhelmed by this — yet another — supposed time-saver.

Consultant Stever Robbins was struggling with an even heavier burden — up to 100 bona fide e-mails daily — when he decided to do something about it.

Head of his own career-building company and a contributor on management issues to the Harvard Business School newsletter, Robbins describes himself as an “overwhelm wimp” — someone who really can’t handle being run ragged by e-mails and cellphones.

“Taming e-mails,” Robbins says, “means training senders to put the burden of quality back on themselves.”

The best way to start — naturally, since nothing works better than a good example — is with the e-mails that we send.

The first place to make the change is in the subject line of the e-mail, Robbins suggests.

Use it to summarize, not describe, so that the reader gets the full context of the message.

His example of a bad subject line, “Deadline discussion,” would be replaced with “Recommend we ship product April 25.”

Cut to the chase, in other words.

If you’re responding to a previous e-mail, Robbins suggests starting the message with enough information about the previous discussion to orient the reader.

And if you’re sending a response to a bunch of people, he suggests marking out each person with care.

By doing this, he says, you can “ask yourself why you’re sending to each recipient and let them know at the start of the message what they should do with it.”

In order to get things done, it’s necessary to make action requests clear, Robbins says.

“Summarize action items at the end of a message so everyone can read them at one glance,” he says.

And if you want to reach someone quickly, don’t assume they’ll see your e-mail right away. If they’re as snowed under as many of us are, chances are the best move is to pick up the phone.

The other side of the coin, of course, is how to read your own e-mails efficiently. Robbins suggests checking e-mail at defined times each day, maybe two or three times.

“When it’s e-mail-processing time, however, shut the office door, turn off the phone and blast through the messages,” he says.

To keep unnecessary e-mails at bay, Robbins offers the example of the CEO who charges staff members $5 from their budgets for each e-mail she receives.

Other methods he suggests are keeping answers so brief that senders realize you won’t be indulging them with long answers, and sometimes even ignoring e-mails so people realize the only way to get their message to you is to talk about it face-to-face.

Remember that.

© The Vancouver Province 2006