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Samsung's Q2 profit drops 26 percent due to sluggish TV sales, demand for phones explodes
You may or may not have noticed, but we're once again in the thick of earnings season, and today Samsung's in the hot seat. The company has reported that its second-quarter profit fell 26 percent year-over-year to 3.7 trillion won ($3.5 billion), largely thanks to underwhelming sales of flat screen TVs and, to a lesser extent, semiconductors. That's a shade worse than the whiz kids over on Wall Street were expecting, according to Bloomberg. In fact, the demand for televisions was so disappointing that it overshadowed what was actually an impressive quarter for the outfit's mobile division -- sales of feature and smartphones quadrupled year-over-year to 19.2 million units, putting the company on track to further narrow the gap with Nokia, the world's bestselling handset maker. All told, this balanced out to a modest growth in revenue -- an uptick of 2.9 percent to 39 trillion won ($36.7 billion).
Dell brings the 24-inch E248WFP Stateside
Dell's latest 24-incher, the E248WFP, got a little overshadowed when it was released in Japan next to the webcam-sporting SP2208WFP, but now that it's coming Stateside we're ready to love it just as much. The lowest-priced Dell 24-inch display, the E248WFP features a 1920 x 1200 resolution, 1000:1 contrast ratio and a 5ms refresh rate for just $469. You're not getting a lot of frills for that number, of course, with inputs limited to just DVI-D with HDCP and VGA, no speakers, and no USB ports, but as a pure screen it's a pretty slammin' deal.[Thanks, Victor]
ProShield eliminates glare and protects flat-screens
While LCD and plasmas boost amazing display tech, they both have a vulnerability 'bout the size of a womp rat - their screen. Plasma screens tends to be rock-solid kid-proof however they produces a good amount of glare, where LCDs don't suffer from glare; their screens aren't exactly dense. Therefore, the savior of flat-screens just might lie with Wolverine Data's ProShield. This cure-all claims to eliminate all glare, increase screen contrast, and is of course, is scratch / impact resistant up to 150 mph. We're not exactly sure if this product is simply clear, flat snake oil but with prices starting out at $99 for the 37-inch size, any parent with a flat-screen, might wanna take the chance.[via TV Snob]
Consumer Alert: Circuit City recalls Verge TV mounts
There is nothing more important than the safety of your family. [period] Sure, that flat screen hanging on your wall was a big investment but can you imagine what a 100+ lb screen falling from five feet could do to a child? Circuit City has issued a joint, voluntary recall for their in-house Verge brand TV mounts. This recall is for the tilting models only - VPSW103M & VPSW103M2 - as apparently, with an upward force, the locking mechanism could fail, causing the TV to fall forward. Not good. Circuit City does have a free repair kit available to correct this defect - call (888) 666-9897. Even if you aren't using this Circuit City house brand mount, go check your mount to make sure everything is nice and safe. [via HDTV Almanac][warning: link is a .doc file]
If you shoved a giant TV through a wall ... you might be a redneck
GamerDeals shows off a pimped out redneck flat screen system that shows the wonders you can work in small spaces with just a little bit of ingenuity, some know-how, and a lot of muscle. This adheres to the old DIY adage, "If it don't fit, just give it a good shove." The real question here though is ... what makes that house redneckish? Other than the guy who submitted it calling it redneck-style, it looks fairly decent to us, although we're not talking about the giant hole in the wall. Hopefully he didn't have to go through anything load-bearing.[Thanks, Fargo]
Graduates would prefer a flat screen TV
Remember the days when you could get a graduate a leather briefcase or a watch? (we don't but are sure there was once a time like that) These days the kids want a flat-screen TV. 31% of the polled graduates wanted a flat-screen TV rather then anything else, including a new computer. But should they get a flat-screen because they earned their diploma? Sure, why not. They probably already have a computer, cell phone, digital camera, and PDA. What else are you going to get 'em. Oh, just make sure the flat-screen has a Kensington Security Slot so the TV doesn't grow legs and walk out of the dorm room.
Solid state TDEL flat panel HDTVs -- still -- coming soon
Cheaper than LCDs and plasmas plus better picture quality in a 1-inch thick flat panel HDTV? That's what iFire has been promising for a while now and it may be one step closer to reality. Their parent company Westaim hopes to bring the thick-film dielectric electroluminescent technology (TDEL) screens to market in 2007 at a price point of less than $1000 for a 34-inch model. It involves no gases, liquids or vacuums and requires no backlighting. Instead the materials are layered directly onto the glass which they say provides better PQ and a wider viewing angle, with half the production cost of LCDs. Much like the fabled SEDs which we still haven't seen, we've been looking out for these since Engadget first mentioned them in 2004. If/when either technology debuts, it will be very interesting to see how it affects the existing high definition flat screen market.
