Agressive marketing fight at LCD Televisions

Analysts said aggressive marketing by leaders Sony Corp and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd in the key North American TV market threatened the market share of LG Display's client brands, such as Philips, LG Electronics and Vizio.

LG Display
reported a record operating profit in the usually slow January-March
quarter, helped by tight panel supplies and surging demand for
flat-screen televisions ahead of the Olympics in Beijing in August.
LG Display has posted a record
operating profit for the first quarter of this year. In a briefing LG
Display said its sales totaled W4.036 billion (US$1=W976), operating
profit was W881 billion, and net profit was W717 billion during the
January-to-March quarter.
The first quarter is normally a
low-demand season for LCDs. Nonetheless LG Display managed a record
quarterly operating profit, up 1 percent from the previous quarter
and a major turnaround from a loss of W208 billion in the same period
last year.
First quarter sales fell 7 percent from
the previous quarter, but swelled 44 percent compared with the first
quarter of last year.
Experts speculated that the company's
earnings were boosted as Chinese consumers rushed to replace their
TVs ahead of the Beijing Olympics. Earnings are expected to increase
further as U.S. consumers buy digital TVs to keep up with a
nationwide shift to purely digital TV broadcasting slated for
February 2009.