We’ve been hearing whispers for months now that Panasonic is set to abandon the plasma TV business as it struggles to realign itself in the face of multi-billion pound loses over the last few years. With the company faltering amid the global recession and the consequent decline in sales of display panel technology, it’s been forced into making some drastic measures, laying off thousands of staff and closing a number of its manufacturing facilities.
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| Panasonic pulls plug on plasma, switches focus to OLED |
Now, the company has finally confirmed its intention to shift away from the plasma TV market, saying that it’ll no longer be putting any resources into plasma technology R&D – news that will be met with huge disappointment from the legions of plasma TV fanatics in the UK, the vast majority of whom agree that no one does plasma quite like Panasonic.
Speaking to The Verge earlier today, Panasonic Display Vice President Kiyoshi Okamoto confirmed that its new ZT60 Smart TV will be the last plasma model to come from its research and development division. Okamoto did stress however the distinction between development and production of TVs. He said that while R&D has been brought to an end, the company will continue to produce and sell its latest range of plasma TVs until 2014 at the earliest.
So what does the future hold for Panasonic’s TV business? And, more importantly, would a change of fortunes see it reverse its decision?
Unfortunately, that’s unlikely to happen, although every cloud has a silver lining, and Okamoto revealed that Panasonic is instead looking to the development of OLED, a display technology that many believe will even surpass plasma display in terms of image quality. Until now, we’ve seen little from Panasonic in the OLED department, with the exception of a prototype model that surfaced at CES last January. This model was developed in partnership with Sony, and it’s likely that at least some of Panasonic’s plasma engineers will now be shifted to this project.
It may be some time before we see any Panasonic OLEDs hit the stores though. Okamoto admits that due to the company’s precarious finances at the moment, it’s unable to go ahead with OLED production until it can be “absolutely sure” the venture will be profitable. Of course, OLED production has proven to be notoriously difficult, with both Samsung and LG struggling to overcome poor manufacturing yield rates, which is one of the chief reasons why the technology is so expensive.
Meanwhile, for plasma TVs, it looks as if we’re edging ever closer to the day when the industry finally pulls the plug on what once promised to be the most revolutionary display technology of our time. For a variety of reasons that never quite happened, though it certainly had a profound effect on thousands of TV connoisseurs across the world who swear that plasma TVs are superior to anything else available.
Source: The Verge
Wow…this is huge.
The general view of specialist plasma retailers is that OLED could end up dead in the water if the Chinese cannot manufacture a reliable mass produced product cheaply enough.The consumer has become accustomed to competitive pricing in recent years so the potential of a next generation OLED viewing experience will come second in consideration to attractive pricing at the retail store.Another important factor not always considered is that the quality of content to view on these panels may not do the technology justice so a standard 50hz LED will do just fine for most consumers,especially if it’s the cheapest option around.Plasma enthusiasts may lament the demise of their choice of viewing experience but LED was being pushed more often by store salesman to new buyers.The cheap Chinese made products have downgraded any sense of value in todays throw away society so the second and third TV purchases are not likely to be any of the well known major commercial brands.if the product dies and cannot be replaced outright it will get dumped,something you wouldn’t hopely consider doing if you bought a plasma or OLED TV. As a point of interest i have been told that the Panasonic ZT60 is not to be made available in Australia,how do you figure that?.
Disappointing to hear of the end of R&D for a nxt gen plasma product from Panasonic. First Pioneer, and now Panasonic.
The real losers in this will be both the end-user / consumer and the advertisers / broadcasters.
1) The end-users of course lose the availability of a quality based performance television. And while the race to the price bottom with LCD does get television into more homes worldwide. The experience is greatly diminished when the quality is poor (and I have yet to find an LCD that remotely comes close to the performance of a plasma). And when the experience is greatly diminished in any activity, it is not long before the participant finds something else to do. Which leads to:
2) The advertisers / broadcasters will lose in the looooong run due to less consumers will actually be watching television. Quality bad = Experience bad = Participant finds something else to do with their time. Simple physiology. Will it happen overnight – No, but it will happen. (Look at the demise of the audio / music business with the introduction of compressed digital audio files. Lower sales volumes – less consumer involvement with music and associated products – reduced audio industry).
Sad, sad, sad information.
this is the best news i have ever heard , of course plasma is great , of course plasma superior than lcd , but nothing come close to oled , you see every oled is project kuro by himelf ( i mean every oled is better than even project kuro which never come to life ) . panasonic knows that and this is why it and lg choose to focuse on oled and this is why i`m happy now , because this is mean that oled will be more supported and competitive and it`s availability and prices will be faster than we think.
I’m a bit puzzled at the reports of Panasonic’s alleged doubts about OLED replacing plasma (while stopping plasma R&D) since Panasonic/Sony have actually developed a OLED production process that is cheaper and more cost effcient that the rival LG or Samsung…now is the time to “get them looking”
it won’t be cheap enough for middle class (let alone low class), but top class OLED priced @ current top class plasmas or LEDs might well be possible witing 2 years…during which they’ll probaby still be producing plasma TVs…
I don’t see any problem with plasma disappearing. It had its shot, and it’s over. Let it go. Essentially, it’s not moved on from the point where Pioneer exited anyway. From what i’ve read, OLED is the best of LCD and plasma worlds, so what’s not to like? The prices of OLED will not start anywhere near as high as plasma did, and come down more quickly.
That’s as long as the North Koreans don’t nuke Japan/South Korea…