LCDs may be headed for price cuts

This Christmas, Sharp Electronics is going to hunt down its enemies.

Last year, the Japanese electronics giant lost some footing in the LCD TV market, in part because its rivals had moved to a different standard of manufacturing that allowed them to come out with cheaper, bigger sets.

Those days are over, one Sharp employee told me. The company is already making TVs out of glass from its eight-generation Kameyama plant. The sheets of glass from this plant measure 2.16 meters by 2.46 meters. Six 52-inch LCDs can be popped out of a single sheet. The smaller glass sheets processed in sixth- and seventh-generation plants (Sony and Samsung have a seventh-generation plant) can only produce two and three 52-inch panels, respectively, out of a single piece of glass.

Holiday pricing will be interesting, the source said.

(Photos: Michael Kanellos/CNET News.com)