CES 2008 Press Conference: LG

And that is all from the LG press conference. Check out the gallery below.

The LG Netflix partnership won’t bring anything until this summer.

Question from USA Today, to comment on LGs thoughts on Blu-ray vs HD DVD. They agree the balance of power has tipped, but they are moving forward with supplying dual format units. Translation: we are letting consumers make the decision, not us.

Kenwood and nielsen will be working with LG and Harris on MPH. And yes, I still don’t know what the “h” stands for in MPH. Hair? Harpie? Hotdogs? I’ve got nothing and it is clear he isn’t going to tell me. And he is done and the floor is opened up for questions.

Now Howard Lance from Harris Corporation is speaking about their partnership with LG. Harris is facilitating the broadcasting trials. Feb 2009 is when they expect to get MPH to fruition. They see news, weather, sports and live events as the big drivers in the market and lots of local content. A lot of money is being put into MPH by both LG and Harris. They are betting big.

Personal Navigation Device, for those who don’t have GPS in your car. This device does GPS and TV in your car. USB dongle has excellent coverage. LG, not surprisingly, looks to Korea to show us how this market segment is going to take off. OK, if you say so. I don’t see it, but this guy clearly does.

The MPH will go to phones, portable media player, to in-car, laptop via USB dongle, GPS. Paik says MPH is low cost and has a minimal footprint. Paik showing cell phone with MPH chip.

That looks to be it for product intro for handsets as the hand model flutters off to the side. They will be partnering with a film studio (zzzzzz). LG plans to intro new products each month this year. Nothing for us now.
So, up comes Dr. Woo Paik CTO. Here comes the new product called MPH. Mobile Pedestrian H-something. Mobile TV anywhere, anytime.

Ehtisham Rabbani VP Product Strategy and Marketing takes the stage. LG handsets continues to grow, 2% to 20% of the market since 2002. Rabbani touts 3 awards for the Voyager, Venus and Muziq. And we’ve got a hand model on stage for some quality phone holding over the big screens. The Rumor at under has LG struggling to keep up with demand

LG will into a bedroom TV. The BH200, 9 dual format HD player.

Jason is intro’ing Mark Levinson, is chief audio adviser. And now we get to the good stuff. Netflix and LG: they will develop a device to allow streaming of movies and other programming from Netflix with out a computer

LG will have 8 new models, 6 of which will be 1080p. Some will be wireless ready, thinking of the future. These plasmas have what they call invisible speakers, where the speakers are incorporated into the bezel.
LCDs are going down to 1.7″ thick. wow.

Jason proudly looks forward to Plasma and LCD growth. Jason is recounting how much consumer studies they do to guide their products. They look to design, picture quality and audio quality to be their hallmarks of the 2008 line up. 1080p flat panels will be ISF ready. They are working with THX as well.

Ahn finishes up remarks with a classic peace sign and LG’s tag “life is good”. Here comes the sneak peak from Allan Jason, VP of Marketing.

Every division had impressive gains in the US, averaging about 30%. Ahn stresses this is due to a perception of LG being innovative and stylish.

.5 billion dollars in sales, almost doubling revenue from 4 years ago.

Ahn speaks about how LG brand is growing in North America.

Introducing the CEO, Michael Ahn, who now takes the stage.

John Taylor, VP Public Affairs and Communications is on the stage, reading his welcome.

Adam identified a mobile video device streaming on the podium. A nice looking player, the buttons on top say Navi, TV, Menu. Interesting…

Every seat is filled at this point. I am getting the feeling the seating capacity will be stretched for this announcement.

There are banners of the Venus phone, microphones, TVs etc. We’ve been given a five minutes to warning…

I am counting over 10 TV cameras. Our man Adam Berger is pushing and shoving to get some clear images.

The room is just about filled to capacity.

This is todays first Press Conference, #1 on the docket of what is sure to be an impressive day. There are several flat screens displayed, some phones, but they look to be stuff we’ve seen…

Smooth jazz music is pumping through the big speakers at either side of this massive room.