Sony Corp. and Panasonic Corp., Japan's biggest makers of TVs, may announce an agreement next week to cooperate in making sets that use new organic light-emitting diode displays, company officials said.
The two may issue a statement before their shareholder meetings Wednesday, the officials said, asking not to be identified because the plan is private.
The partnership would be the first between the main TV operations at the two companies, which are losing money as the strengthened yen erodes overseas earnings and as competition from Samsung and LG intensifies. The two South Korean giants have said they will launch OLED models by year's end.
OLED TV are as thin as 4 mm and produce sharper images than current liquid-crystal-display models. Shipments of OLED TVs may grow to 2.1 million sets in 2015 from 34,000 in 2012, according to Englewood, Colorado-based IHS Inc.'s iSuppli.
Image sensor boost
KyodoSony Corp. said Friday it will boost the production capacity of image sensors, or semiconductors used in cameras, in Japan to meet growing demand for smartphones and tablet computers.
With an investment of about ¥80 billion, Sony plans to hike production capacity for CCD and CMOS image sensors to about 60,000 wafers per month by the end of September 2013 from the current 45,000 wafers.
At a plant of Sony unit Sony Semiconductor Corp., the company will produce stacked CMOS image sensors, which provide more advanced performance in a more compact form, it said.