Panasonic AE3000 going on sale in Japan on 11/1 (Updated)

Update: AE3000 going on sale on November 1st in Japan. More info in posts below, original post below this untouched.

I went to CEATEC earlier this week (there's a link to a few photos in my sig currently) and JVC was the only one to really have front projectors going on. That said, I didn't really see Sanyo or Epson with a real presence, if they had a booth at all (there was so much I could have easily seen it and forgotten it) while Sony was all about OLED and their digital SLRs. That said, Panasonic had one of the single biggest booths at the entire show, and they had another booth in halls 7-8 that was pretty big. For all that floor space, they had nothing about front projectors, and when I asked about the AE3000, I had to wait for a while to confirm that they didn't have it, then I had to wait for a while again when I asked if there was anyone from Panasonic who could talk about their LCD projectors. No one.

I don't want to jump to conclusions, but it's October, and Panasonic's Japanese page (http://panasonic.jp/projector/) is still selling AE2000s, and neither Kakaku.com nor any of the stores have anything on the AE3000.

Is Panasonic exiting the Japanese front projector market? Considering they've got a pretty compelling product with the AE3000, it'd be pretty surprising to me if they aren't selling it here. (And if they are selling it here, why is there zero information on it?)

Massachusetts? If you're in the states, I don't think you have anything to worry about.

As for this month, the Sanyo (using the same panels) is coming out mid-November here, and the Epson (using the same panels) is coming out late-November here. I wonder if the Panasonic will be out in October? If so, what's taking Sanyo and Epson until mid/late November?

Awesome! Thanks for that. Sure enough the link in my first post now shows the AE3000. (Why did Panasonic not say/have anything at CEATEC and wait this long to announce it in Japan?)

Oddly enough, while the article says 11/20, the Japanese press release it links to says 11/1 (発売日 11月1日) and the Panasonic web page in my first post says the beginning of November. (「11月上旬発売予定」 could be taken to mean the first half or first 10 days of November.) Not sure where they got 11/20 from. I'm curious if Sanyo and/or Epson will move their shipping date forward to early/mid November if Panasonic's 11/1 date is correct.

This puts me in a bit of a pinch, as the end of November seems forever away, but I'd like to compare it to Epson's TW4000. My honest feeling is that I'll get the most bang for my buck from the Epson, but I am interested in the level of benefit of game mode and how well lens shift works. (I'm tempted to go into a list of pros/cons for each...if anyone wants to hear them and help me make up my mind...let me know. I'm currently slightly leaning towards the Epson.)

One more interesting thing from the Japanese press release:
月産台数 200台

That means monthly production. Looks like they'll only have 200 units per month for Japan? That might explain why the AE2000 prices were so high here... Sanyo announced 1500 as their monthly worldwide capacity.

Either way, lots of info, and info is good. Hopefully some of the stuff I posted here is of interest to someone besides me.

http://www.yodobashi.com/enjoy/more/.../93678365.html

Barf.

The AE3000 is listed as "Open Price", meaning no MSRP...but it's looking like it might see the same retail price as it's predecessor. With no MSRP or Panasonic web store price to go buy, Yodobashi Camera's (one of the biggest major chains in Japan) price is as close as I can get to MSRP. (This is not meant as price talk, I am sure online stores will be cheaper...)

￥448,000

at 105.45 (current rate)

$4,248.45 (Japan price in US dollars, including the 5% inclusive sales tax.)

(That's the same as JVC's HD350)

Also, the link confirms the release date of November 1st.

Some nice features, sure...but I'm definitely leaning more towards the Epson now.