Matsushita's Panasonic and Google to launch Internet TVs

January 7, 2008

TOKYO (Reuters) - Web giant Google Inc is developing televisions that display Internet content such as photos and videos together with Matsushita Electric Industrial Co Ltd's Panasonic unit.

The TVs, to be launched this spring, will allow users to directly browse and access videos from YouTube, a video-sharing Web site owned by Google, and view Picasa Web Albums, a free online photo-sharing service from Google, Panasonic said in a statement on Monday.

"Panasonic's cooperation with YouTube and Google's Picasa Web Albums exemplifies our commitment to leading the natural evolution of the Internet and extending it to the High Definition television," Panasonic Consumer Electronics Company's Vice President Merwan Mereby said in the statement.

The news sent the shares of Matsushita higher right after the market open, but they shed 1.8 percent to 2,150 yen by 8:08 p.m. EST to underperform a 0.7 percent fall in the benchmark Nikkei average.

Late last year, Matsushita, the world's top plasma TV maker, said it would take control of a liquid crystal display joint venture and may build a new factory, marking a major shift in its strategy for the flat panel TV market.

Matsushita has until now invested aggressively in plasma displays in the belief that it was the most cost-effective technology for flat TVs bigger than 37-inches, while procuring LCD panels to make TVs for the smaller sets.


TO VIEW VINNIE'S OLD BLOG PAGE CLICK HERE
fans turn out 							new episodes of Star Trek for you to enjoy. Find everything 							STAR WARS Animated 							bunnies star in 30 second versions of famous movies 							you would have seen at the starlite drive-in Watch some public 							domain movies online...these will change often; so 							come back often and see what is new. Watch 							vintage televsion shows Watch some 							interesting video shorts for fun A collection 							of short video clips Be Patient 								While Superman page loads The great BETTY BOOP 							in some of her 	artoons Curly, Larry, Moe, 								Shemp and Curly Joe ham it up in complete shorts Watch complete 							cartoons of Bug Bunny, Porky Pig, Daffy Duck and more Join the entire POPEYE 							gang in some great cartoons Here is a 							collection of various vintage cartoons. HAVE A 							DRIVE-IN THEATRE IN YOUR BACKYARD FOR PARTIES