Bridgestone to Produce Ultra-Thin Display Devices

Bridgestone has announced that it will enter the display device market. The Japanese tyre maker says it has developed “ultra-thin electronic price tags” and is aiming to achieve sales of 1 billion yen (£5.1 million) in two to three years. Bridgestone has invested several hundred million yen in the business and plans to start mass-producing the devices by December 2005, said a company spokesman.

According to the company, the high-tech price tags were developed using proprietary technology that it employs in tyre manufacturing. This technology is said to enable the company to produce displays as thin as 0.25 millimetres, many times thinner than standard liquid crystal and plasma screen displays.

Bridgestone says it will sell the first device, with a screen size of 4.5 inches and thickness of one millimetre, to a European company for use as an electronic tag displaying prices, product names and other information such as photos of where the product was made.