JVC adds to flat-screen TV line

Yoshio Ideguchi, president of JVC Korea, has headed the company since it first set up shop at the end of 2000. Now in its fourth year of doing business here in Korea, the JVC Korea president said, he had high hopes that the company’s 32-inch liquid crystal display television would make an impression on the already competitive Korean flat-panel color television market. Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics and Sharp are the major competitors for Korean market share in what Mr. Ideguchi called a strong and technologically sophisticated market. In the past JVC Korea has concentrated on digital camcorders and audio gear; this will be its first foray into the LCD television market here. Worldwide, JVC has a 77-year presence in markets for home electronics appliances. “We are the second Japanese company, after Sharp, to jump into the LCD TV market here,” Mr. Ideguchi said. He cited the importance of LCD displays to his company’s product line, saying that over half of the company’s audio and video products contain such screens. In its new 32-inch LCD TV, Mr. Ideguchi said, JVC Korea has solved some of the problems in earlier liquid crystal displays used in television receivers, such as smearing of the image during periods of rapid movement of images or the dimmer image on such displays compared to those of plasma display screens. JVC has been importing televisions with the latter type of screen since last July. The company said it hoped that JVC Korea’s LCD TV could grab 10 to 20 percent of the Korean market this year. The company also set a goal of surpassing its record earnings of 84 billion won ($70 million), in 2002. JVC Korea said it also would introduce other additions to its audio and video product lines here, including high-end gear that would cost as much as 10 million won per unit. by Choi Ji-young