Philips tries to keep up in monitors
Trying to stay abreast of the changing monitor market, Philips Electronics announces new products in its flat panel display and CRT lines today at PC Expo.
Philips introduced three new monitors, a 15-inch flat panel and two "short neck" CRT (cathode ray tube) displays, one a 17-inch model and one a 19-inch version.
The debuts demonstrate that Philips will aggressively compete to tap two industry trends, the emergence of the flat-panel technology and the increasing usage of larger-screen CRTs.
"Our new monitor products speak to specific demands that we have heard from our corporate customers," said John Strobel, vice president of Philips' monitor division, in a prepared statement.
The 151AX flat panel comes with a USB hook-up to allow users to easily connect the display to other peripherals. It will be available in the third quarter for an estimated retail price of $1,199, the company said.
That would be a bit below projections for the industry's average selling price for 15-inch units at the time, according to market research firm Stanford Resources. Philips bills itself as the world's second-largest monitor manufacturer, but claimed less than one percent of the flat-panel market in the first quarter.
The Philips 17-inch 107B and the 19-inch 109B will be priced at $429 and $649, respectively, and will be available in the fourth quarter of 1998.
Price drops in the CRT market have been encouraging some users to go for larger screen sizes, rather than cheaper 15-inch models, as the bigger units essentially cost what the 15-inch screens cost about a year ago.