Samsung, Sharp named as LCD screen providers for PSP

Sony has announced that electronics giants Samsung and Sharp are to provide the LCD screens for its forthcoming PlayStation Portable console, in a deal which could be worth up to â'¬330 million annually.

An unnamed official from Japanese firm Sharp confirmed the deal to Bloomberg Japan, but declined to provide exact details of the order quantities - stating only that the scale of the contract was "huge" - which, in the context of a company as large as Sharp, is a meaningful statement in itself.

While officials from South Korean firm Samsung and Sony itself declined to comment on the supply contract, Samsung's last earnings statement in January mentioned a major project related to small LCDs which would make game consoles and PDAs, rather than mobile phones, into the largest target market for sub-10" screens.

IDC technology analyst Stanley Jeong told Bloomberg that the contract could be worth $400 million (â'¬330 million) annually to the two LCD manufacturers, and could also create further opportunities for the supply of LCD control chipsets. The scale of the order - which is obviously an incredibly important deal for both companies, despite the fact that they are already world leaders in the LCD market - gives an insight into Sony's ambition for PSP, which the company has previously described as the 21st century's Walkman.

Bloomberg Japan