July
31


LG and Dolby Laboratories signed an agreement that grants LG a license to embed Dolby Mobile technology into its handsets. LG would be the first handset maker to incorporate Dolby Mobile into handsets bound for the global market. Dolby Mobile is an audio processing technology platform designed to deliver rich, vibrant audio and dramatically improve listening enjoyment. Built on Dolby’s extensive portfolio of technologies, Dolby Mobile has been optimized for mobile applications.

Dolby Mobile is designed to allow customers to optimize and tailor audio for an enhanced entertainment experience. LG plans to apply Dolby Mobile technology to a wide range of multimedia features on its phones.

Seoul, Korea and San Francisco, July 30, 2008-LG Electronics (LG), a worldwide technology and design leader in mobile communications, and Dolby Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE: DLB), the global leader in technologies that are essential elements in the best entertainment experiences, announced that LG would be the first handset maker to incorporate Dolby® Mobile into handsets bound for the global market. The companies signed an agreement that grants LG a license to embed Dolby Mobile technology into its handsets.

Dolby Mobile is an audio processing technology platform designed to deliver rich, vibrant audio and dramatically improve listening enjoyment. Built on Dolby’s extensive portfolio of technologies, Dolby Mobile has been optimized for mobile applications.

“Being the first company to incorporate Dolby Mobile technology into handsets for the global market reinforces LG’s role as a leader in the mobile industry and in multimedia phones,” said Dr. Skott Ahn, President and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company. “We believe this technology will raise the bar for audio quality on multimedia phones and expect Dolby Mobile to help us create a new trend in the mobile phone industry. LG is committed to providing our customers with the best features available and our new collaboration with Dolby helps us deliver on this pledge.”

“LG shares our passion for cutting-edge innovation. This agreement combines LG’s vision and resources with Dolby’s pioneering leadership in entertainment technology to deliver the next generation of mobile entertainment,” said Bill Jasper, President and Chief Executive Officer, Dolby Laboratories. “Our broad experience and success working with LG in the past gives us great confidence as we move forward.”

Dolby Mobile is designed to allow customers to optimize and tailor audio for an enhanced entertainment experience. LG plans to apply Dolby Mobile technology to a wide range of multimedia features on its phones.

Some of the Dolby Mobile features that LG plans to incorporate into its phones include:

Mobile Surround, which delivers a realistic surround sound experience using headphones
Sound Space Expander, which creates a wide, rich, and spacious soundstage experience especially suited to music playback
Natural Bass, which adds powerful boost and bass extension
High-Frequency Enhancer, which enhances music and other content by restoring high-frequency effects
Graphic EQ, which helps tune the audio experience for different content types
Sound Level Control, which helps level out audio for a more consistent playback volume
Mono-to-Stereo Converter, which improves the playback experience of user-generated content
The companies held a signing ceremony earlier today in Seoul to officially kick off their collaboration. Dr. Woo Young Kwak, R&D Center Head of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company, and Stuart Mitchell, Senior Vice President, Sales at Dolby Laboratories, attended the ceremony.

LG plans to begin launching high-end multimedia phones that incorporate Dolby Mobile technology from the fourth quarter of this calendar year

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July
31


Panasonic today announced the company’s plan to construct a new flagship lithium-ion battery plant in Osaka City. With two other existing manufacturing bases in Osaka Prefecture and Wakayama Prefecture, Panasonic will integrate the new plant to reinforce the production of rechargeable batteries in Japan. The new plant will be the main manufacturing site, employing an integrated manufacturing system controlling everything from electrode production, cell assembly and charge-discharge testing to packaging and shipping. Especially, the electrode production facilities will ensure the safety of lithium-ion battery products as well as a safe manufacturing process.

The new plant will be strategically located in Osaka City to provide logistical advantages when working with its other plants in Osaka and Wakayama Prefectures. Making MBI one of the world’s top manufacturers of lithium-ion batteries, the plant will help to accelerate the company’s growth strategy to meet market needs and take advantage of its technological prowess in manufacturing safe batteries with high energy capacity. The factory aims to reduce CO2 emissions by 30% based on the basic unit from the level of fiscal year 2009 ending March 2009.

Osaka, Japan - Matsushita Battery Industrial Co., Ltd. (MBI), a consolidated subsidiary of Matsushita Electric Industry Co., Ltd. (MEI [NYSE symbol: MC]) known for its Panasonic brand products, today announced the company’s plan to construct a new flagship lithium-ion battery plant in Osaka City. With two other existing manufacturing bases in Osaka Prefecture and Wakayama Prefecture, MBI will integrate the new plant to reinforce the production of rechargeable batteries in Japan.

The new plant will be the main manufacturing site, employing an integrated manufacturing system controlling everything from electrode production, cell assembly and charge-discharge testing to packaging and shipping. Especially, the electrode production facilities will ensure the safety of lithium-ion battery products as well as a safe manufacturing process. The plant will be strategically located in Osaka City to provide logistical advantages when working with its other plants in Osaka and Wakayama Prefectures.

MBI will invest about 100 billion yen in the new plant, which will be built in two phases. The first phase construction will begin in December 2008 with the aim of commencing electrode production in October 2009 and battery cell production in April 2010 with a capacity of 300 million battery cells. When the second phase construction is completed, the new plant will have a total production capacity of about 600 million lithium-ion battery cells per year (50 million cells per month).

In addition, the company plans to invest about 23 billion yen to improve the productivity of the existing two plants. With a total investment of 123 billion yen in these domestic plants, the company aims to firmly establish a global manufacturing system that can satisfy the growing and diversifying global market needs. This requires the cooperating of domestic plants with the overseas plant in Wuxi, China, capable of producing batteries in various varieties and volumes.

Demand for environmentally-friendly, rechargeable batteries shows notable increases not only in major markets like Europe, the U.S. and Japan, but also in emerging markets like BRIC countries, as demand for mobile devices like laptop PCs and cell phones are on the rise.

Making MBI one of the world’s top manufacturers of lithium-ion batteries, the plant will help to accelerate the company’s growth strategy to meet market needs and take advantage of its technological prowess in manufacturing safe batteries with high energy capacity.

The company aims to build a safe, secure and environmentally-friendly factory by implementing a safe manufacturing environment and maintaining high energy efficiency. The factory aims to reduce CO2 emissions by 30% based on the basic unit* from the level of fiscal year 2009 ending March 2009.

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July
30


LG Display announced on Sunday that it will cut LCD output by 10 percent by August and joined the global trend among liquid crystal display panel manufacturers of scaling down production. Taiwanese LCD makers CPT, CMO and AUO have led the production cuts in recent days as IT firms are reducing LCD panel orders on low demand in the second half, which is lowering panel prices. An LG Display official cited concerns about excess supply in July and the summer slow season in August in North America and Europe. He said the decision is in line with the company’s principle of flexibility in addressing global market situations.

Samsung Electronics said Thursday that it is keeping an eye on the market situation but has no plan to cut production for the time being.

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