• Associated Press via New York Post, Wednesday, January 9, 2008 11 AM

High definition TV makers are working hard to stand out in an increasingly crowded field, adding exotic features and colors, while battling to see who can be the thinnest of all. All the major HDTV brands unveiled their newest wrinkles this week at the International Consumer Electronics Show, with big innovations coming from names like Sony, Pioneer, Panasonic and Toshiba.

They are among the companies that are trying to keep HDTVs from becoming a commodity product a la DVD players, a category which they were largely driven to when unknown Asian manufacturers began to slap them together and sell them for $50, cutting deeply in margins for name brands.

"The goal is to break away from the commoditized market," says Ken Shioda, general manager of display products for Pioneer. That company just demonstrated a 50-inch plasma TV that is a mere 9 millimeters -- just three-eighths of an inch -- thick, a prototype that could be on the market as early as next year.

Read the whole story at Associated Press via New York Post »