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This won't affect North American and European consumers, but Japanese shoppers may soon observe a noticeable lack of JVC LCD TVs for sale. That's because JVC is looking to exit the business in its home country, and will probably make its decision official later this month when it reports earnings.

JVC's news is just one more announcement in a string of LCD business moves that consolidate the market in various regions. It is hard to say why some companies ditch Asian markets (like JVC), while others, like Philips announced last week, seek to get out of the U.S. In all markets, mid-sized LCD manufacturers are faced with increasing competition from big names like Sony, Samsung, and Panasonic.

JVC will keep making TVs for Japanese companies and organizations, but in the consumer sector market share had dropped from 4.1% in 2006 to 3.1% in 2007, according to DisplaySearch. Even though the company was still the fifth biggest LCD-TV maker in Japan, dropping lower than 3.1% market share wasn't worth their while. -Rachel Rosmarin

Reuters