Plasma TV is Dead - Pioneer Exits

[JackT]

LCD TV is Dead - Philips Exits

Philips has announced it will have its LCD TVs manufactured by Funai. LCD is dead!!!!!!!!!

 

[croseiv]

Philips has announced it will have its LCD TVs manufactured by Funai. LCD is dead!!!!!!!!!

LOL!

 

[Audioholics]

Funny! That's just a licensing deal, however. Philips isn't shutting down it's LCD manufacturing or plasma manufacturing plants and outsourcing its core production component.

 

[Biggiesized]

That's strange. LG.Phillips makes some of the best LCD panels in the world.

 

[bandphan]

That's strange. LG.Phillips makes some of the best LCD panels in the world.

phillips is not branding panels in na, thats all, they will still be here under syntax and other brands.

 

[jonnythan]

I read on AVS that Pioneer had an extremely inefficient plasma operation, making only one panel at a time, vs other manufacturers that were pumping them out 5 or 9 at a time from one piece of glass.

Furthermore, the word there was that Pioneer is simply licensing their plasma technology and know-how to other panel manufacturers, and that they will continue to research, develop, and market their plasma panels (which will no doubt still be the best).

So they just shut down an extremely inefficient, unprofitable plasma factory and are outsourcing the actual manufacture to other factories instead of making a new one.

 

[JackT]

Funny! That's just a licensing deal, however. Philips isn't shutting down it's LCD manufacturing or plasma manufacturing plants and outsourcing its core production component.

OMG JVC just dropped out of the consumer LCD business in Japan. Teh LCD is even deader than before!!!!!!!

 

[inmypjs]

The reports of plasma's demise have been greatly exaggerated. Oh yea....we heard it here first alright and you couldn't be any more wrong!

Panasonic VT25 3D Plasma TV has won the coveted award of the Best Product of CES 2010

http://www.plasmatvreviews.org.uk/articles/2010-the-plasma-tv-is-born-again–panasonic-pummels-and-plunders-the-ces-with-its-plasmas/

http://ces.cnet.com/8301-31045_1-10431350-269.html

The V and VT series will feature part of the KURO technology that Panasonic acquired from Pioneer some time ago.

http://www.flatpanelshd.com/review.php?subaction=showfull&id=1267447473

 

[Seth=L]

This thread is old, so some parts of the topic may not be relevant today as we didn't know what the market would be like today.

However......

As you may not be aware, in the past few years several manufacturers have dropped out of the Plasma business for good. LG recently left the game. The only manufacturers of Plasmas seem to be Samsung and Panasonic. Panasonic reportedly did very poorly last year and had to shut down some factories and lay off a few thousand employees.

Plasma as a technology is great, and it would make sense that a Plasma television like the Panasonic VT25 would win an award for their technological advantages over competing technologies. Unfortunately this does not translate to huge profits. Panasonic is still in Plasma because that's their largest consumer directed product force in the US (not sure about the rest of the world). A company like Panasonic can not afford to completely disappear from the largest consumer market with a competent product. Panasonic has been slowly slimming down on other consumer driven categories and making other obvious cutbacks as well. Other revenue for Panasonic is in semiconductors, as they are one of the largest semiconductor manufacturers in the world.

Samsung is probably still in it because they are profiting from it. Samsung OEMs Insignia's televisions now and probably others as well. Samsung is the largest electronics corporation in the world, they could do what Sony and Sears have been doing for many years to follow losing money the whole way if they wanted to.

Vizio recently dropped from the Plasma business as well, although their foray was short lived.

Yeah, Plasma doesn't hold a strong place in the market.

 

[j_garcia]

If it was economical to make smaller sizes then it might be viable, as size seems to be the thing killing them ironically. The most common size TV is most likely in the 32" range and since plasmas don't really start until 42" and up, that means they are missing a large segment.

 

[tsteves]

yada, yada yada. Still, a large percentage of the "smart" consumers are still opting for Plasma. If I was buying today it would be a plasma. Not that I'm implying I am in any way smart!

 

[flovour]

Pioneer announced it's going to exit the plasma display panel market,his doesn't mean that Pioneer will exit the plasma business

 

[Seth=L]

Pioneer announced it's going to exit the plasma display panel market,his doesn't mean that Pioneer will exit the plasma business

It appears that's exactly what they've done. Since they announced this 2 years ago and haven't had a presense in the plasma business since 2008 it seems fairly obvious they are out.