James Delahunty
3 Sep 2007 17:42
Manufacturers of Plasma TVs have told Reuters at IFA in Berlin that they plan to stand by the technology even as liquid-crystal display (LCD) TVs keep getting more popular. While plasma TVs generally do well in larger sizes, LCD has slowly been catching up. In 2006, four times more LCD TVs were sold than Plasma TVs, and iSuppli predicts LCD will be selling 7 times more units this year.
Matsushita, with the world's best selling brand for Plasma TVs, Panasonic, believes it can fight off competition from LCD TVs by simply improving plasma technology. Specifically, the company is aiming to improve power efficiency, and cut the price. Hiro Wada, who is in charge of planning for visual products and display devices at Panasonic said he expected plasma to keep 30% of the market for TVs 37-inches or more in the medium term.
"We have a chance because demand for bigger screens is increasing," Wada said. Matsushita is investing $1.5 billion in a plasma panel factory in Japan, aiming to stay on top of the market. Wada also noted that while LCD technology is 30 years old, Plasma is only 10 years old and has plenty of room for improvement. Panasonic plans to reduce the power consumption of its sets by about 20% per year.
LG Electronics also told Reuters that it will stay in the Plasma business even though it has been urged to sell or shut down the unit.
Source:
Yahoo (Reuters)