DLP(R) Customers Achieve New Levels of Affordability With Home Theater Projectors; Instant Theater and Pocket Projector Categories Gain Momentum
720p DLP Projectors Hit $2K; 1080p DLP Projector Available for $10K
LAS VEGAS, Jan. 5 - Texas Instruments (NYSE:TXN) (TI) at the 2006 International CES today announced that customers have achieved new levels of affordability with DLP(R) home theater projectors, giving consumers greater flexibility and price options for building a high- definition home theater. In addition, the new Instant Theater and Pocket Projector categories continue to gain consumer momentum and expand the offering of innovative DLP front projection products.
The worldwide consumer front projection market is forecasted to grow from 530 thousand units in 2005 to 1.97 million units in 2008. DLP currently holds 58% of the U.S. consumer front projection market, and even higher market share of the high-end home theater market (> $5K), according to Pacific Media Associates (PMA). With the introduction at CES of even more affordable price points, DLP customers stand to benefit from the growing front projection market:
o 720p Resolution: Optoma's new high-performance, high-definition HD72 projectors are being announced at CES with an estimated street price of under $2,000. The HD72 projector offers 5000:1 contrast ratio, 1300 lumens and incorporates BrilliantColor(TM) color processing technology with a 7-segment color wheel to provide great color saturation. Other customers who will be announcing and/or showing new 720p DLP projectors at CES include: InFocus, Sharp, Mitsubishi and SIM2.
o 1080p Resolution: Optoma at CES will also introduce the HD81 DLP projector featuring 1080p maximum-HD resolution for the ground-breaking price of $10,000. The HD81 projector offers 10-bit color per channel color processing, a 7-segment color wheel and an amazing 6000:1 contrast ratio. Other customers who will be announcing and/or
showing new 1080p DLP projectors at CES include: Marantz, projectiondesign, Runco, Sharp and SIM2.
These new projectors contain the recently announced BrilliantColor(TM) technology from Texas Instruments, which increases the color processing capabilities from 3 to up to 7-color processing, enabling a significant boost in mid-tone colors for richer, more saturated full color images.
In addition to the price break-throughs, the new categories of projection introduced at last year's CES continue to grow. The Instant Theater category, which integrates a projector, sound system and DVD player, now accounts for 1.3% of the total worldwide front projection market, and 11.2% of the total worldwide consumer front projection market. With just 3 products in the category, DLP has the leading market share (Source: PMA). The Optoma MovieTime and RadioShack Cinego DLP Instant Theater projectors are two leading products in the category and are now available in more than 2,500 stores worldwide. Additionally, Toshiba at CES is introducing a new DLP projector into the category. The Toshiba TDP-ET20 integrates 5.1 sound and provides a short throw distance to allow big pictures in small spaces. For example, a consumer can achieve a 6-foot image with the projector placed just 3 feet from the imaging surface.
Pocket Projectors are also gaining momentum in the market and are now shipping. Using the .55 DLP chip, these micro-projectors weigh less than one pound and offer incredible mobility. Pocket Projectors have been announced from Mitsubishi, Samsung and Toshiba. The Toshiba TDP-FF1A will be commercially available this month.
"Our focus has always been to provide our customers with a wide breadth of innovations that allow them to differentiate themselves in the market and to offer products that are price-competitive," said Lars Yoder, Business Manager, DLP(R) Front Projection Products. "The new pricing by our customers really speaks to their ability to offer compelling products while continuing to enable more affordable solutions."
CES attendees can experience DLP technology for front projection and HDTV applications at the TI DLP Products booth #8602 in the Central Hall.
About Texas Instruments DLP Products
DLP display technology from Texas Instruments offers clarity down to the most minute detail, delivering pictures rich with color, contrast and brightness to large-screen HDTVs and projectors for business, home, professional venue and digital cinema (DLP Cinema(R)). 75 of the world's top projection and display manufacturers design, manufacture and market products based on DLP technology. At the heart of every DLP chip is an array of up to 2.2 million microscopic mirrors which switch incredibly fast to create a high resolution, highly reliable, full color image. DLP technology's chip architecture and inherent speed advantage provides razor-sharp images and the best reproduction of fast motion video. Since early 1996, more than 8.5 million DLP subsystems have been shipped. For more information, please visit http://www.dlp.com/
Texas Instruments Incorporated provides innovative DSP and Analog technologies to meet our customers' real world signal processing requirements. In addition to Semiconductor, the company's businesses include Sensors & Controls and Educational & Productivity Solutions. TI is headquartered in Dallas, Texas, and has manufacturing, design or sales operations in more than 25 countries.
Texas Instruments is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol TXN. More information is located on the World Wide Web at www.ti.com/ .
DLP and DLP Cinema are registered trademarks and BrilliantColor is a trademark of Texas Instruments.
Source: Texas Instruments DLP Products
CONTACT: Molly Mulloy of Texas Instruments DLP Products, at CES,
+1-214-882-1262, or mollym@ti.com ; or Nick Mendoza of Rogers & Cowan,
+1-310-854-8128, or nmendoza@rogersandcowan.com , for Texas Instruments
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