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  • Fujitsu exits plasma TV market

    Daily science news on research developments, technological breakthroughs and the latest scientific innovations


    Fujitsu, plasma pioneer, says will exit business

    Japan's Fujitsu group said it will end production of plasma televisions, a technology which it was the first in the world to introduce commercially, due to lack of profitability.

    Plasma televisions sales have been falling behind those for liquid crystal display (LCD), a rival high-definition technology.

    Fujitsu General Ltd., a subsidiary of Fujitsu Ltd., has already stopped most production of plasma televisions. It currently produces only high-end models sold primarily at US and British boutique electronic stores.

    "During the past several years, the pricing and profitability of this segment has compressed beyond the point which our company could realise a satisfactory return on investment," Fujitsu General said in a statement Thursday.

    It said it would get out of the business by March and focus on the Fujitsu unit's cores business of heating and ventilation equipment.

    Fujitsu General was the first in the world to sell plasma televisions in the early 1990s after more than two decades of research in the United States and Japan.

    Fujitsu already gave up its major plasma-television operation in 2005, handing over control of a joint venture to partner Hitachi Ltd.

    Another Japanese firm, Pioneer Corp., earlier this year suspended plans to build a new plant after running into the red over sliding sales of plasma displays.

    The plasma television sector, however, continues to have strong supporters including Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., maker of the Panasonic brand.

    © 2007 AFP
    Dr. Mordrid
    ----------------------------
    An elephant is a mouse built to government specifications.

    I carry a gun because I can't throw a rock 1,250 fps

  • #2
    No big surprise. With LCD selling like hot cakes - mainly because the picture quality is nearly as good now, or better in some cases, they are cheaper, lighter and use less energy...and there are emerging new techs I'm sure Fujitsu wants to sink their teeth in - it was only a matter of tme. Even the venerable CRT displays are nearing the point that they will go the way of the dodo.
    “Inside every sane person there’s a madman struggling to get out”
    –The Light Fantastic, Terry Pratchett

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    • #3
      Go to a Best Buy etc. in our area and about the only CRT TV's you see are a very few 13" and perhaps a 27" or two. Otherwise it's a sea of LCD's and maybe 10% plasmas.
      Dr. Mordrid
      ----------------------------
      An elephant is a mouse built to government specifications.

      I carry a gun because I can't throw a rock 1,250 fps

      Comment


      • #4
        Yeah... the vast majority of development money is being pumped into LCD... plasma is already a relatively mature technology and there isn't much room for it to advance, while LCD is catching up. Its unfortunate, since Plasma still has quite a few benefits. But once LED backlights are cheap and efficient enough to be in LCD sets, that'll be the end of Plasma.

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        • #5
          When dynamic LED backlighting becomes affordable, LEDs are going to rule the market. Unless a better tech comes out by then, like OLED with a good lifespan, or any of the other CRT successors that are in the pipe.
          “Inside every sane person there’s a madman struggling to get out”
          –The Light Fantastic, Terry Pratchett

          Comment


          • #6
            Samsung has announced they'll show their 31" AMOLED TV at CES 2008 (Jan 7-10) and they'll deliver 40-42 inch TV's in 2010. These are being sampled. CMEL (Chi Mei - sub of CMO/Westinghouse) plans 32" units by 2010 and 40" plus units by 2011. Sony has already started selling their XEL-1, but at $1,800 USD for an 11 inch screen....

            Meanwhile Philips is finalizing their acquisition of LG's LED division.

            All players are talking contrast ratios of 1,000,000:1 or better.

            Meanwhile the watt-hawks in Australia are talking about putting power limits on TV's by 2011-2012, with their targets being plasma (of course) and high-wattage LED's.
            Last edited by Dr Mordrid; 29 December 2007, 04:12.
            Dr. Mordrid
            ----------------------------
            An elephant is a mouse built to government specifications.

            I carry a gun because I can't throw a rock 1,250 fps

            Comment


            • #7
              LCDs will be a temporary placeholder until OLED takes off. Dynamic LED backlight is very nice, but it substantially drives up the complexity and cost of the backlight circuitry. By the time thats fixed, OLED will be biting at the ankles of LCD. OLED will be used for laptops and smaller screens fist due to its very low power usage, and it'll take longer to get up to large format sizes.

              I think its funny how they talk about contrast with OLED... when the cell is off, its off (black) and there isn'y any light source, so contrast doesn't really mean much anymore.

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              • #8
                Yes, but there are still serious OLED issues that need to fixed. When they are fixed I think it will be the dominate technology. It just may be a while before that happens.
                “Inside every sane person there’s a madman struggling to get out”
                –The Light Fantastic, Terry Pratchett

                Comment


                • #9
                  Fujisu does it again

                  Last time it was 3.5 inch hdds that wasnt profitable enough
                  If there's artificial intelligence, there's bound to be some artificial stupidity.

                  Jeremy Clarkson "806 brake horsepower..and that on that limp wrist faerie liquid the Americans call petrol, if you run it on the more explosive jungle juice we have in Europe you'd be getting 850 brake horsepower..."

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                  • #10
                    Update: Sony is dropping rear projection TV's...



                    Sony renounces rear-projection TVs

                    By Scott Snowden
                    31st December 2007 09:02 GMT

                    Sony has decided to drop its rear-projection TV business worldwide in order to focus instead on two flat-panel technologies - liquid crystal display (LCD) and organic light-emitting diode (OLED).

                    Sales of rear-projection TVs had been declining recently as LCD TVs gain in popularity and grow in size. Sony showed off a series of OLED-based TVs at CES early in 2007, as we reported at the time.

                    Its first OLED model went on sale in Japan in December.

                    In October, the Japanese electronics giant lowered its global sales forecast for rear-projection TVs - which use a projector to create images on large screens - from 700,000 to 400,000, and that figure is down from 1.1m given the previous financial year.

                    By contrast, it expects to sell 10m LCD TVs this financial year through March, up from 6.3m the previous year.

                    Sony sells 85 per cent of its rear-projection TVs in the US, and about 10 per cent in Europe, according to Sony spokesman Shinji Obana. Production at the three plants that make the rear-projection TV sets in Japan, Mexico and Malaysia, will be halted.
                    Dr. Mordrid
                    ----------------------------
                    An elephant is a mouse built to government specifications.

                    I carry a gun because I can't throw a rock 1,250 fps

                    Comment

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