PDP (Plasma Display Panels) has secured a solid position in mid- and large-sized panel display market. Its application is increasing in the outdoor advertising market as well. Currently, domestic PDP makers continue to develop and market the world's largest PDPs, vying for the top position in the global PDP market. This write-up shows the current and future outlook on the application of PDP display products.

A World-Leading PDP Maker
PDP is a large panel display based on the principle of gas discharge. It displays images using plasma, which is a gaseous state. It is divided into negative-charged electrons and positive-charged ions. It has a high level of electric charge but simultaneously, as a whole, it remains neutral because it has equally the same number of negative and positive electric charges. If this gas is put between two thin glass panels, and strong voltage is applied to the positive and negative electrodes of the panels in the state of vacuum, the gas beams emits as it changes into the plasma state and the original state. This process is used to display images. Currently, an increasing number of PDPs are used in home TVs, advertising media in transportation facilities, and P.O.P displays within commercial space, exhibitions, and special events, among other things. In line with expanding PDP application areas and consumer demand for a large-sized PDPs, PDP manufacturers continue to unveil 60-inch and larger PDPs. In particular, Samsung and LG, both world-class companies in the PDP products field, are competing with each other to produce larger PDPs. When LG Electronics developed a 76-inch PDP in October 2004, then the largest PDP of its kind in the world, Samsung SDI unveiled an 80-inch PDP going into 2005, breaking the world record for the largest PDP and heating up the competition between the two companies. The stiff competition between Samsung and LG has certainly produced positive effects in enhancing the competitiveness of the domestic home appliances industry. Thanks to the intense competition between the two giants, Korea has overtaken Japan in the manufacturing field of PDP and LCD products, currently leading the trend in the global panel display market.

Reasons why PDP size continue to increase
PDPs are becoming larger and larger because, as with all industrial products, mass production leads to lower costs, which consequently leads to increase product demand. Thus, PDP manufacturers exert all-out efforts in manufacturing the largest PDPs. The technology of slicing multiple sides from a piece of panel, which panel display manufacturers use to produce panel displays, entails the manufacture of a prototype of a single large panel, and the cutting of this panel into smaller panels. This technology is tantamount to the effects produced by expanding production lines. Likewise, the capability to develop a single 76-inch or 80-inch PDP translates to the capability to produce two 38-inch and 40-inch PDPs at the same time. The larger the manufacturers develop the panel, the lower their unit prices become. Currently, manufacturers' core products range in size from 40 to 50 inches. However, if 100- and 120-inch PDPs are developed, the 60-inch PDP, which is currently the highest priced, will emerge as the most ordinary product. Manufacturers foresee that they will continue to compete for larger PDPs. If prices fall, a new market will open, and PDP size will even be enhanced in the existing market. Current commercialized PDPs can be sufficiently used as retail shop displays and P.O.P displays for restaurants, cafes, bars, health parlors, and other mid-sized shops.

The Next Wave in Streaming- Video Advertising Market
General Manager Lee Chun-woo of Jang Lee Communications, which runs PDPs as a streaming video-based advertising medium in the Seoul subway stations, explained, "After the first use of PDPs as an advertising medium in 2002, PDPs in streaming video-based advertising has secured its position in the entire advertising market." Although growth in the entire advertising market has slowed somewhat due to the economic slowdown, an increasing number of businesses are using small-scale PDP-based advertisements to promote and market their products. Commercialized PDPs have thus far been used as streaming video adverting media, store displays, information dissemination, and control room monitors, primarily in transportation facilities, department stores, shopping malls, theatres, and public facilities. Given the PDP market trends, businesses that have used PDPs will likely use larger PDPs in the future. The lowering in prices is expected to encourage these retail shops to further use PDPs as store display and P.O.P displays, prompting signage manufacturers to pay closer attention to this advertising trend. After all, streaming videos advertising can certainly attract more attention than still and larger images.