The morning press - even more digital signage news!

Happy New Year, folks. Like lots of other people out there, I'm expecting 2008 to be a good growth year in the industry, though if you believe Frost and others, we're already past that period of giddy, hockey-stick growth (if it ever happened at all), and entering a period of respectable 20-ish percent annual growth that will eventually lead us to maturity some years ahead.

In preparation for the onslaught of press releases, etc. that this year is sure to bring, we're toying with adding a new type of article to the blog that just does a quick and dirty roundup of the day's "news". These will just be a series of headlines and short snippets from different articles and press releases that informed minds will want to be aware of, but don't merit the time and attention that go into our usual, pithy blog posts (or warrant more coverage, but at a later date). For example, this is what today's would look like:

• Focus Media Completes Acquisition of CGEN: In accordance with the share purchase agreement entered into on December 10, 2007, Focus Media made a cash payment of US$168,437,500 to the CGEN shareholders and the CGEN shareholders delivered 100% of the equity interest in CGEN to Focus Media. With this acquisition, Focus Media has significantly expanded coverage of its digital advertising displays in large chain stores in China.


• MediaTile expands its digital signage connectivity options: Connectivity options now available include the original cellular-broadband support and direct-connect LAN support, and new options for cellular-broadband to Wi-Fi support, satellite-IP support, and standard Wi-Fi support.


• Prices of LCD panels to plummet In 2008: As Rodney Chan from DigiTimes informs us, the latest Chinese-only report from research company DisplaySearch indicates the fact that the production costs of LCD displays are expected to record a decrease of 10-16% in compound annual growth rate (CAGR) up to 2010.... The market research company makes quite a bold prediction: by the 4'th quarter of 2010, 32-inch HD LCD TVs will have seen average production costs lower to sub-US$400, 42-inch full HD models to sub-US$600, and 52-inch full HD ones to sub-US$1,000.


• AirMedia installs digital frames at Beijing Capital International Airport: AirMedia upgraded 90 light box displays to 46-inch digital frames at Terminal 2 of Beijing Capital International Airport and has begun placing clients' advertisements on these frames since the beginning of December 2007. As of December 31, 2007, the Company had installed 328 46-inch digital frames and 120 70-inch digital frames at Terminal 3 of Beijing Capital International Airport. The new digital frames at Terminal 3 will begin displaying paid advertisements when Terminal 3 is open for testing at the end of February 2008.


• Reactrix aligns with Samsung to for interactive advertising platform at CES: Reactrix today announced it has joined with Samsung to launch an interactive large-format advertising platform — WAVEscape™, which will be featured in Samsung’s booth during the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, January 7-10.


• Ariel Way, Inc. signs LOI to acquire minority position in FaceTime Strategy, LLC: Ariel Way, Inc. announced its plans to acquire 10 percent of FaceTime Strategy, a full-service new media agency. The letter of intent stipulates the company's interest in investing in the firm that specializes in advertising, marketing and public relations campaigns via the Internet, broadcast, print and other mediums.

What do you think, is this at all useful? I don't want to add noise to this blog, but it seems like a concise collection of the day's industry press might be valuable to those who don't have a bazillion google filters and custom web crawlers out there searching for newsworthy (or at least marginally relevant) clips.

Tags: digital signage