TI sales up, but DLP is lagging
Texas Instruments expects to hit the high end of the analyst expectations for profits, thanks mostly due to huge consumer and holiday demand. TI is the world's largest manufacturer of DSP chips which are used in mobile phones. DLP chips are also produced by TI; these chips drive the images in Digital Light Processing-based HDTV sets, but most of the sales revenues are coming from the DSP area.
One Deutsche Bank analyst noted that the company's DLP business could be lagging behind competing flat-panel displays. As much as I like the DLP picture, I've seen some very solid LCD and PDP displays lately. Picture quality is important, but you have to wonder if DLP technology has let the flat-screen sets catch up. Thin is in, so are microdisplays on the way out?
