As flat-panel crowds out tube TV, start-ups crowd in
By Mike Langberg
Mercury News
In every gold rush, a few lucky prospectors get rich and everyone else goes home broke.
There's a gold rush under way right now in the marketing of flat-panel television sets. Although flat-panel LCD and plasma TVs are still pricey, consumers are enthralled with the concept of big, wide-screen, high-definition sets that are thin enough and light enough to hang on a wall.
One hopeful entrant in the flat-panel sweepstakes is Encross Enterprise of San Jose, an ambitious start-up with just a dozen employees here and in South Korea, selling LCD TVs under the Kreisen brand name.
Encross is a perfect example of two big forces reshaping consumer electronics.
First is the unstoppable march of digital technology, which continuously makes everything from MP3 players to notebook computers to mobile phones both better and less expensive.
Second is the rise of Original Design Manufacturers, or ODMs -- companies in South Korea, Taiwan and China that design and manufacture sophisticated products for others to market in the United States.
Flat-panel TVs now sit squarely at the intersection of these two trends. more...
