Phillips just announced that they have shipped the 1,000,000th Ambilight large screen TV. I'd say that this is quite an achievement for a brand which started a little more than a year ago. As a quick reminder, the main difference between normal TVs and Ambilight ones resides in the fact that Ambilight TVs emit a light that glows on the lateral sides of the TVs. Phillips says that Ambilight provides a richer experience when watching movies, especially when coupled with HD content and 5.1/7.1 high definition audio.

"In harmony with the 10th anniversary of its first flat-panel TV, the one million milestone for Ambilight TVs shows that there is consumer demand for a TV that sets itself apart from the rest of the market", claimed Philips officials. Rudy Provoost, Phillips CEO, also remarked, "This demonstrates that Ambilight has clearly become a hit with consumers - it not only enhances the overall viewing experience but it also makes watching TV easier on the eyes."

In the 3rd quarter of 2006 Phillips obtained the 3rd position in the Top 10 sales regarding the number of LCD TV units that were sold during the last three months. The Ambilight technology is available in both LCD and plasma TV sets but at a higher price over its other Ambilight-less models. For example, the retail price for a 42" Ambilight LCD HDTV is $3500 with a comparable "plain" Philips TV selling out for just $2,700. Some online stores are offering smaller-size Ambilight TVs from about $1500.

This was a prolific year for Phillips, since they introduced no less than 30 TV panels ranging from 15" to 63". According to them, more than 90% of these TV models had a built-in HD tuner (DVB-T and in some cases even DVB-S) or were capable of displaying HD content on 720p resolution for the smaller-size model while some larger ones were also capable of native 1080p resolution.