Pioneer has decided the plasma TV market is to competitive and will be halting all internal production of plasma displays. The company will not be leaving the industry however and will instead get plasma panels from Matsushita.
Currently pioneer is the 5th largest plasma TV producer and is losing money on its plasma division. Actually, Pioneer is “expected to report a loss of 10 billion yen or about $96 million USD for the fiscal year.”
Although not confirmed yet, Pioneer will supposedly close down one of its largest Japanese plasma manufacturing plants and focus the other two on assembling TVs. Pioneer stopped internal production of LCDs last year and teamed up with Sharp in a similar deal to this recent one.
Adde Mitsushige Akino of Ichiyoshi Investment Management, “This is an excellent development [Pioneer stopping plasma production]. Pioneer could have chosen another way and stepped up its plasma investment despite the fact that the business is bleeding red ink, but it’s a wise step to decide against that. A quicker decision would have been even better, though.”
Result for: lcds
Philips has introduced a new LCD TV, the Eco FlatTV, that it claims will reduce your current electricity bill, regardless of how much TV you watch.
According to Philips, the Eco FlatTV’s backlight can be dimmed to reduce the TVs electricity draw, but more importantly, “without compromising the picture quality.” The “sensor monitors the surrounding ambient lighting level and adjusts the brightness of the TV’s backlight accordingly,” says the company of its new feature, Ambilight.
While in standby mode the TV consumes less than 0.15W of electricity which is indeed under the average for LCD TVs. You could however, save full electricity by turning off the TV but that is neither here nor there. The TV also uses lead-free components and flame-retardant materials which are reportedly friendly on the environment. Even the package the TV is shipped in is made from all recycled materials.
Does the TV stand up to other LCDs on the market though? It seems that way. It sports full 1080p Resolution, Pixel Plus HD image enhancement as well as four HDMI ports and invisible built-in speakers. The company says the TV will cost $2200 USD when it is released in June.
Result for: lcds
Panasonic has announced that it plans to incorporate brand new, miniature plasma displays in cellphones and other small media devices.
The low-voltage plasma technology will be used in phones using AT&T’s “Mobile TV” service which will “provide full-length television content and sporting events from major US channels, due to launch in May.”
At a press event in the States, Mark Balsama, national marketing manager for Panasonic said: “I have a very exciting announcement to make…”
“For nearly a decade, Panasonic’s engineers have been secretly working on a thin, lightweight low-voltage compact Plasma display … We will be able to incorporate miniature plasma displays into both consumer and business telephone products starting this fall. They will rival OLED displays for brightness, contrast and thinness, and can be manufactured for much less money.”
“We’ll be able to put plasma in Cell phones, business phones, consumer phones, corded phones, cordless phones, and even door intercom monitors and fax machines. We will revolutionise the consumer electronics business, as Panasonic has done many times before.”
Additionally, Robert A. Perry, the new senior VP of Panasonic added: “Our plasma expertise and our large-scale, efficient manufacturing will allow these new small Panasonic plasma screens to replace LCDs in many applications - gasoline pumps, automated teller machines, camera viewfinders, MP3 players, vending machines, automotive displays, digital photo frames, appliance touch screens and even the little pop-up screens on printers”.
[More]>>
