Plasma TV is Dead - Pioneer Exits

[paulw]

FYI.

http://www.audioholics.com/news/industry-news/plasma-tv-is-dead

"As we predicted several years ago, plasma technology is on its way out. Putting one of the nails in the lengthy coffin is Pioneer Corp, who is stopping ALL production of plasma display panels. Last week we reported that they had decided to stop all 42-inch panel production, however that has now been expanded to its entire plasma line. This comes via an industry source briefed on the plan and quoted by Reuters in an article released today. Rather than panic, Pioneer shares immediately jumped to a four-month high following the report - up 11.2 percent."

First HD DVD now plasma TVs

[Brian Ellis]

Makes sense! Never liked them.

[Elie]

I see the market move more and more to LCD and the OLED when it's produced in mass quantities.

Plasma was nice, but had it's issues and probably cost more to produce as well.

Cheers,
Elie

[Dr Mordrid]

Pioneer has stopped producing them but the report I read has them now buying their panels from Matsushita. Still the consolidation shows a very weak plasma market. In our local brick & mortars you see maybe 10% of panels for sale are plasma with the rest LCD, and the ratio is deteriorating. Some only have 1-2 plasma models period.

[xortam]

Pioneer will release news on their latest business plans for PDPs on Friday. The rumour is that Pioneer will cease production of the panels by the end of FY08 (Mar-08) and buy the glass from Panasonic. They will continue to produce plasma displays but using Panasonic glass. I've also heard that Pioneer will still produce their next version of the Kuros (9G) using Pioneer glass but those aren't scheduled for release for a few months still. I had planned on buying a 60" 9G Kuro but was still considering waiting for the 10G which was to sport the more efficient and superior PQ 10-lumen technology. I think the Kuros have the best PQ of any HDTV display I've seen though they are quite expensive. The new business plan will hopefully result in displays that won't sacrifice much on PQ yet cost Pioneer less to build and be more available and at a lower price point. I'm hoping to hear Friday that Pioneer plans to license to Panasonic it’s panel technology and perhaps even it's new cell driving technologies (extreme contrast ECC and 10-lumen). Pioneer has made some huge jumps in PQ on their PDP displays with the Kuro line and it's future protypes and I hope we still see these produced yet with Panasonic glass. The Panasonic glass itself will continue to improve and hopefully even more so with Pioneer's technology.

[xortam]

Pioneer held their business meeting today for their display business and issued a press release which can be read here ... http://pioneer.jp/press/pdf/ir/08030...ucturing-e.pdf . A key point is this release are these statements:

... However, we have judged that maintaining the cost competitiveness of plasma display panels at projected sales volumes will be difficult going forward. Accordingly, we have decided to terminate in-house plasma display panel production and to procure these panels externally, after panel production for our next series of models is complete. ...

Thus the upcoming 9G models will still be using Pioneer panels. These new PDPs are reported to produce black levels increased by 80% over the 8G models as well as thinner and brighter than their predecessors with a slightly reduced price. Sound & Vision interviewed Russ Johnston, Pioneer executive vice president, about the news and you can read that here ... http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/fea...ts-plasma.html . In that article he confirms that Panasonic will likely be producing the panels for future Pioneer plasmas TVs (10G and beyond). These panels will be Pioneer spec glass made by Panasonic and then incorporated with Pioneer exclusive technologies to produce a plasma unique in the marketplace.

… The number-one goal is to make sure we can maintain our differentiation, and specifically our Kuro difference in the marketplace. We understand that the module [plasma panel], the processor, and the filter are the key components. Our performance isn't solely built around the glass or the module. We're still making the entire video circuit and processing, and also the color filter strategy and technology is coming from Pioneer. Those are the key elements that we can maintain exclusive to Pioneer.
We will have some specification requirements for our module, and I'm sure that they will learn a few of our trade secrets, but none of those decisions have been made. We're far enough into the discussion with Matsushita that we're confident we will have them as a third-party supplier for modules in 2009. …

I think I’ll probably land up with a 9G Pioneer Elite Kuro 60” plasma come this Fall after they have been released. I’m tempted to wait for their 10G model which will should be much more energy efficient while being even brighter and absolute black levels (zero voltage idling levels) though there is some risk in the conversion over to Panasonic glass. I doubt I’ll wait beyond this year but we shall see. I think plasmas will still reign king in PQ for a number of years still at these larger screen sizes. It will be quite some time before OLED displays are available and affordable in a 60” size.