Apple just announced an investment of $100,000,000 in Samsung, makers of LCD screens. Samsung has been making great strides in ultra-thin displays for the best portable computers. They are leaders in their industry, and just this week released a 16.5" LCD, the largest yet for use in a portable.

The following is an excerpt from the joint press release the two companies made public yesterday:

Apple and Samsung today jointly announced that Apple will invest $100 million in Samsung to further expand Samsung's TFT-LCD flat-panel display production capacity. The investment is part of Apple's strategy to insure an adequate supply of TFT-LCD displays to meet the growing demand for Apple products.

"We are pleased to partner with Samsung to insure that Apple is on the cutting edge of flat panel display technology," said Steve Jobs, Apple's interim CEO. "With our new iBook and fast selling PowerBooks, Apple will need more flat displays than ever going forward."

With this investment Apple can hope to keep ordering LCDs in bulk quanity to keep prices down and meet demand on the iBook. With the prices of LCDs on an upward slant this is a good business move for Apple. They have maneuvered to keep themselves on the fore-front of LCD design and have entitled themselves to offer cheaper prices to consumers.

While this big display would keep the dimensions of an Apple portable wide and long, the thickness could be very thin. A 16.5" LCD would be great for a future Creative or Professional PowerBook as that would equal about a 19" desktop CRT display. Hopefully Apple can utilize this technology to continue to keep ahead of the curve in laptop design.

Written/Edited/Published by Doug B. Landry
Logo by Jon Iverson
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©1998 Doug B. Landry. All rights reserved. All or part may not be reproduced or distributed without prior consent.
Coded on a Apple Macintosh Powerbook G3 Series from Baton Rouge, LA