if you are thinking of buying a flatpanel television you are not alone along with apples ipod music player and a robot vacuumcleaner called the roomba flatpanel tvs just a few inches thick as opposed to much fatter flatscreen tvs based on conventional cathoderay tubes are generating a buzz among techsavvy holiday shopperstodays flat mania says scott mcgregor the boss of philips semiconductors is completely irrational since a conventional tv can produce just as good an image at a fraction of the price not that mcgregor minds his firms joint venture with lg of south korea is the worlds leading maker of liquidcrystal displays lcds the technology used in most flatpanel tvsin part says riddhi patel of isuppli a marketresearch firm the rise of flatpanel tvs is driven by the popularity of dvd players games consoles and digital cable all produce clear sharp images that look good on a big screenflatpanel screens are stylish and do not take up that much room and they have geek appeal as pip coburn an analyst at ubs puts it getting a flatpanel tv today is as exhilarating as getting a desktop computer 15 years ago if you can remember what that was likebut the main reason for the sudden emergence of flatpanel tvs is that manufacturers smell a lucrative new market as lcd screens in both desktop and laptop computers have become commonplace margins have diminished televisions however use large lcd panels which cost more to make but command far higher marginsnew entrants and established firms such as motorola and westinghouse both of which stopped making tvs decades ago are now piling in so too are computer makers such as dell and gateway which already sell lcd computer monitors and are attracted by the fatter margins in consumer electronics the economist