Your right!! I might be an error in thinking S panels were not being made anymore.I based my view on what i have heard on hard forum and other chat sites.One other web site i follow (whirlpool.net)from australia seems convinced s panels are not going to be made anymore.One thread even said he heard it from samsung itself!ifll try to find that thread.
This whole "not being made anymore" thing sounds incredibly fishy to me. Samsung-Semiconductor just started making the 220M1 a couple of months ago, and as far as I know, it has never appeared in any other monitor. It would seem incredibly silly to stop producing it so quickly. It's not impossible, of course, since there are reasons to discontinue a new product line. The Samsung divisions are incredibly competitive with one another (so I've heard), so in theory the Samsung consumer division could have gotten a better price from AUO than their own Samsung-Semiconductor division was giving them (on the flip side, I have never heard of this happening). Or, maybe Semiconductor just decided they could not manufacture a 22" TN display cheaply enough to compete with AUO and CMO. Or perhaps they needed the production line for another panel. These are not outside the realm of possibility, but neither do they seem likely.
My bet would be that things are the other way around: the Semiconductor division could not produce the 220M1 in enough volume, so the consumer division decided to fill the gap with some panels bought from AUO. If this is true, then hopefully once things stabilize the Samsung-made panels will become plentiful enough to meet demand for the 226BW and the A models will be phased out.
Just my $0.02.
Mofongo