LG et iRiver s’associent pour le développement de readers

Depuis l’annonce de l’iPad, un bon nombre d’entreprises semblent s’être ravisées de sortir un reader. Pourtant, ils étaient plusieurs dizaines à présenter leurs produits lors des différents salons d’électronique grand-public. On attend en particulier la réponse d’Amazon et de Sony qui devrait arriver d’ici la rentrée.

Cependant, iRiver semble avoir adhérer au concept de lecteur de livres électroniques. Les bonnes critiques et le succès raisonnable de son dernier produit l’iRiver Story ont poussé l’entreprise coréenne à investir un peu plus dans ce domaine. La société annonce donc, conjointement avec la géant LG Displays la création d’une joint-venture qui rassemblera 5 millions de dollars d’investissements (avec la part majoritaire pour LG). La société nouvelle créée s’appellera L&I Electronic Technology (Dongguan) Ltd et sera basée en Chine. iRiver se chargera des questions de design et d’ergonomie tandis que LG fournira les écrans EPD. L&I travaillera en tant que OEM et ODM autour de la conception de readers pour différentes marques. Il ne serait pas improbable que le premier résultat de cette joint-venture soit le prochain reader d’iRiver.

En tout cas, les deux firmes coréennes se sont bien choisies (iRiver est une des références en matière de design d’appareils mobiles tandis que LG est un des premiers fabricants d’écran au monde) et elles pourraient devenir une alternative intéressante à l’autre OEM/ODM du secteur, Netronix.

Iriver – LG Display
Establish joint venture for e-book business

- Iriver and LG Display financed a total of 5 million dollars to establish a joint-venture company in Iriver’s China Plant
- Operating an ODM and OEM system to manufacture e-book reader
- Develop and produce leading e-book readers in the global market by generating synergy in the technology and manufacturing aspects

Iriver and LG Display have agreed to establish a joint venture company, ‘L&I Electronic Technology (Dongguan) Ltd.’ in China to expand their e-book business.

Each Iriver and LG Display will finance 49% and 51% of the joint venture company, respectively, totaling up to 5 million dollars. The business will be founded on original equipment manufacturing (OEM) and original development manufacturing (ODM) systems to develop e-books and provide production services.

Iriver is responsible for product design, accumulated knowledge on e-book technology, including designs and platform development, as well as technical assistance within the joint-venture. And Iriver will be the first customer for the joint venture. LG Display, with its global sales network and world class production skills, will be in charge of providing a stable supply of e-book displays, such as electronic paper displays (EPD) to the joint venture.

Iriver expects to gain a stronger market presence in both the domestic and global e-book markets as it will gain a price competitive e-book reader supplier from the new relationship. The prospect for LG Display also seems bright. It will stand out from its competitors by securing a stable distribution line for its e-book displays, while also making its debut in the final product business.

Jae Woo Lee, CEO of Iriver, said, “The joint-venture is significant in that it lays the foundation for a more stable and competitive manufacturing line. If we succeed in generating a synergy between Iriver and LG Display, our joint-venture company will grow to become the market leader with unrivaled competitive power in e-book development and production business.

LG Display’s Executive Vice President and Head of Mobile/OLED Business Unit Mr. Eddie Yeo said, “LG Display decided to establish a joint venture with iriver to supply customers with more competitive products as part of our upstream-downstream business transformation strategy. LG Display will utilize its advanced EPD technologies to achieve early commercial production of color and flexible EPD and reach the global No.1 position by 2012.”

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