"CX, NZ, AC, DL, Jet, VS etc all offer a version of herringbone (seats angled to centerline) seat, Airbus are 3 abreast, B777 and B747 are 4 abreast. They offer a flat bed with 100% direct aisle access. VS was the first and offered it in 2003 in response to BA's 2000 flat introduction. VS had simultaneously introduced the first flat at an angle seat in 2000 but realized they had been trumped by their UK rival. VS then set about building what we now know as the Upper Class herringbone with the flip over bed. As several have noted it faces away from the windows, you really can't travel with anyone, etc. But it has always rated very highly because you get a flat bed and 100% access.

NZ built it under license. Contour, the manufacturer then built what they call Solar Eclipse, which is built off the Eclipse angled flat mechanism platform. Solar Eclipse had a much better mechanism and you don't have to get out the seat to lay flat in bed mode, also it has a legrest (which VS does not) with more adjustability to get into "Z" positions etc.

Contour sold this improved version to AC, DL, Jet, etc. VS then sued for patent infringement and they have been arguing ever since. Contour won the first judgment and VS won the appeal. It is now going before the EU patent officials and possibly the UK Supreme Court. [some consider VS's case to be flimsy], [but they have been ardent and persistent and appear] to have convinced the appeals judge they invented that residual conehead shaped space between the window wall and seat furniture.

CX's current seat was introduced in late 2006. It is also a herringbone, but unlike the others it was built by B/E Aerospace who build the new UA and BA seats in both B/C and F/C among many others like JAL's B/C, Korean, etc. AA MD80 F/C and B762 F/C and B/C are B/E seats.

This version was made with thinner furniture (walls) and narrower to increase the density because an aircraft/airline operates or is subject to economies of density more than economies of scale. Though it is really not a lot different in orientation than the VS/NZ/DL/AC seats it is reportedly a lot less popular and that customers don't like it, too flimsy, tight, etc. An even bigger fiasco was the coach cabin where they could not get the seat 16G certified and had to put an airbelt on every single seat in the coach cabin (usually they are specialty applications like a bulkhead row, etc).

End result is that CX is ripping them all off the aircraft and replacing it with Cirrus. The word is their product team got sacked as someone noted. Fall guys probably, because it takes so many people to make a program like this happen its usually hard to pin the blame on any one area and senior management always approves all this stuff.

You will almost certainly see more Cirrus seats on more major carriers. Sicma is not really a top tier supplier, but they are owned by Zodiac who also owns Weber here in the US (Gainseville, TX) who is a huge supplier especially of coach seats (new AA B737 and B757 and as much as 50% of all B787 orders). Weber will probably make all Cirrus seats sold in the Americas. [some would say] Weber is a lot stronger on the production side than Sicma.

Cirrus is serviceable; I would not call it great. It solves some of the shortcomings of the VS herringbone, but is deficient to it in other ways. I think CX went that way because it was readily available and supplied a similar level of product (flat, 100% aisle access, etc) as their current product and did not face away from the windows, but it is not revolutionary by any stretch."

The Thompson design is actually the most efficient fully flat seat for a 767 since you retain 100% aisle access. As the seat is installed on other aircraft the direct aisle access goes down, about 90% for A330, about 80% for 777, etc.