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Forums - General - Pioneer to end TV business by 2010

Coca-Cola on 23 February 2009

http://newteevee.com/2009/02/21/pioneers-kuro-killing-a-tipping-point-in-the-plasma-era/

Last week, Pioneer announced it was killing off its critically acclaimed TV business by March 2010 and will concentrate on car and audio/visual systems. It was a dramatic fall for a company that just one year ago had CES abuzz with its newest plasma TV, the so-called “Ultimate Black” Kuro.

Fast-forward to the start of 2009, and LCDs were outselling plasmas 8-to-1 globally, and the dominating the best-selling lists on Amazon.com.

Pioneer tried a last-ditch partnership with Panasonic to create a version of its plasma TVs, contributing its own “secret sauce” to keep the Kuro tech flowing, but that effort appears to be over.

The slumping demand is already having consequences: Projected losses of $1.41 billion in 2008-09 (following a loss of $203 million in 2007-08) and a nearly 50 percent drop in operating revenue have set the scene for 10,000 jobs cuts and the closing of U.S., UK and Japanese facilities. But Pioneer’s not the only TV maker suffering. They’re all taking it on the chin, regardless of display type.

Both Hitachi andVizio had to end the bleeding by shuttering plasmas to concentrate on LCDs. And not even the usually flush holiday period buoyed TV companies to a safe financial landing: Sony, Panasonic, and LG all posted lower quarterly profits.

 

Is the the end of Plasma TV?



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akuma587 on 23 February 2009

Probably. Plasma has been a dying breed for awhile. Not to mention they have DLP's and soon OLED's to contend with.



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makingmusic476 on 24 February 2009

That sucks.  I'm an LCD fan but their plasmas were amazing.

Of course, I'll be an avid OLED fan once the prices come down, lol.



highwaystar101 on 24 February 2009

^ I agree with these guys, as soon as OLEDs become cheap, easy to produce and more readily available then it will hammer the final nail in plasmas coffin and begin to start hammering nails in LCDs. I could talk about it more, but that's why I go to uni.