Panasonic to exit plasma TV panel business

kona786

kona786

kona786

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Panasonic to exit plasma TV panel business by end-March 2014



Ahh man, sad news. :(

I better buy the TXP50GT60 I'm after before it's too late.

Panasonic's TV division has been a major contributor to the electronics company's combined $15 billion (9 billion pounds) net loss in its two latest financial years. Its TV business posted an operating loss of 88.5 billion yen ($913 million) in the last financial year.

The move also signals the demise in Japan of a technology in which TV makers once invested heavily but has now been overtaken by advances in the liquid crystal display (LCD) business. Plasma display TVs accounted for less than 6 percent of global shipments in 2012, compared with 87 percent for LCD TVs, according to research firm DisplaySearch.

Squeezed by the strong yen in recent years, Japan's TV makers have also lost their innovative edge against nimbler rivals such as South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, with deep resources to spend on research and development.
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http://www.reuters.com/article/2013...20131009?feedType=RSS&feedName=technologyNews
 
I read this in the morning, wondered what will happen with customer support/spares etc, my Panasonic plasma is only just coming up to 1 year old..
 
I agree the Image quality on my GT50 is great, however I wouldn't buy plasma again anyway. I don't like the ghosting which can be quite prominent and because I use it as both TV and games console monitor I'm always on guard against IR.

I've even had to return it for repair now because the vertical banding (DSE) was really starting to bug me.

It is still sad to see them struggling and having to drop entire lines as a consequence. Its not even like they will now be able to invest in actually pushing OLED to a consumer level instead.
 
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This has been known for quite some time that the current panels would be the last they ever made.

They were still going to keep manufacturing new sets based on the current panels though and may still do so depending on the finances.

If you want a plasma the time to buy is now.

I got a gt50 earlier in the year because I knew this was happening and I wanted something to tide me over for the next 5-10 years.

By then 8k and oled should be starting to come into play without any niggles.
 
Out with the old, in with the new :)

It's time LCD/LED and plasma went the way of the dodo! I want black levels/contrast and motion that match my old HD CRTs!
 
Saw the Samsung OLED in John Lewis the other day. Its amazing in every way, a totally incredible picture quality. If I could afford it, I'd buy it over the Sony 4K even though the Samsung is smaller, 1080P, and two grand more expensive. It really is that good. It is the future of television, if they can make them cheap enough.

It's no surprise that plasma is on the way out when you see what OLED can do. As soon as OLED gets traction via a sensible price, LED will start counting it's days.
 
Sad times overall for Panny, they seem to be bleeding money all over the place right now.

Think it looks like they are looking to sell of the production lines and everything.
 
cu3ed said:
Sad times overall for Panny, they seem to be bleeding money all over the place right now.

Think it looks like they are looking to sell of the production lines and everything.
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looks like if you focus in Quality, rather than marketing and profit, then you end up going out of business.

first pioneer now panasonic.

could this lead the way for Samsung to basically have a monopoly over the market, therefore no longer needing to focus on quality but on adding features or useless PR stuff in order to stay ahead.

OLED also iirc has worse IR than plasma.

so how does that work?

will Samsung or consumer's force changes within the tv broadcasting world?

allowing logo's to be removed or make them automatically switch corner every 15 minutes or whatever, etc.

or will we see OLED eventually become IR free?

surely IR is a tech trait and pretty much impossible to remove completely, as it was with plasma.

either way, with all these questions OLED still has a long way to go before people switch to it, because worse IR than plasma could be a deal breaker for many.
 
Psycho Sonny said:
surely IR is a tech trait and pretty much impossible to remove completely, as it was with plasma.
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That's one of the things, along with lifespan, screen-size, and manufacturing cost that various companies have been working to fix for the last few years. That's why it's taken so long to get consumer OLED TVs out in the market, and why they cost so much.

LCD and plasma TVs were no different when they first arrived. Lots of issues and high cost. In the end, plasma has gone because it's not selling, and has been superseded by new tech, just like the CRT.
 
Probably one of the reasons plasma is on the way out. With power emission rules in parts of the US and no doubt the EU before long, there's no way they could get power draw down to the likes of LED levels.
 
This is sad news, I have had Panny Plasmsa for nearly 10 years, but times move on

I sold my plasma and bought a Sony LED the other day, hope things pick up for Panasonic, Ive always preferred them over LG and Samsungs
 
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