Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Westinghouse in the press

I just found this in one of John Dvorak's columns, evidently he is a fan too:

 http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,2123846,00.asp?kc=PCRSS03079TX1K0000584

The 1080p Monitor Revolution Dept.: Many of us have been waiting for 1080p monitors, and now they're appearing at Costco. That means "mainstream." The most interesting of the group comes from a company called Westinghouse Digital Electronics. Well, the executives behind these monitors are various eggheads from Korea, Taiwan, and China with experience at Princeton Graphics, Samsung, and elsewhere, but they're licensing the Westinghouse name for marketing purposes.

I would keep an eye on these folks. They seem to be doing everything right, and they're part of a big market swing away from Samsung, a company that essentially owned the monitor space a couple of years ago.

Success seems to have spoiled Samsung, and the company ended up losing its best marketing people, including Peter Weedfald, who went to Circuit City, and Rey Roque, who went to Westinghouse. To top it all off, Samsung dumped its well-connected PR agency, HWH, out of New York City—and HWH quickly signed with Westinghouse.

These apparent missteps are costing Samsung momentum in the market, and Westinghouse appears to be the primary beneficiary, along with Sharp and Pioneer for their LCDs and probably Panasonic for its excellent plasma displays. If I were to buy an LCD monitor today, it would be a Westinghouse. I don't see anything else of this quality at such a low price.