Panasonic Planning to Exit TV Production

What a shame it's a sad day for plasmas. Lets hope OLED comes to fruition soon.

Very sad day for not just PDP's but the whole flat panel industry. Panasonic has made very arguably the best TV's since Pioneer left the biz, and they did nothing but improve year over year. Wish it wasn't true
Edited by hoozthatat - 10/16/12 at 8:42pm

Well looks like last hurrah for plasma;( only Samsung lives?

lg still makes plasma, no one cares tho.

@ zorro, LG still makes em, just no where near as well.Though I'm sure you already knew that. Such a shame about this news though. IMHO plasmas still best LED/LCD's in most every relevant category.

except sells, plasma has gotten such a bad stigma plus it's looked at as old technology. I've bought c8000 in 2010 and the d8000 in 2011, both Samsung led tvs. I had decided my next tv after a lot of research would be a Panasonic plasma, but considering I've spent 6k in two years for two tvs I'd have to wait a few years. It would be hard to get another tv purchase past the wife, so I was targeting 2014 at the earliest to have an excuse to buy a new tv. This puts a kink in my Panasonic plasma plans..

Agree 120% that it doesn't sell as well but that doesn't mean from a performance stand point it isn't better. It doesn't sell as well because of major misconceptions about the technology and because they don't get as over saturated on the show room floor at retailers and show rooms so they don't look as impressive. Yet I'd argue that again they outperform in every relevant performance category. But I'm pretty sure that's for another thread.
Still sad about Panasonic. Great brand, great products. They will be missed.

This is so disappointing. Panasonic is and has been making beautiful TVs for years.

So they make the best performing TV in 2012 (VT50) and then they simply quit the business? I can only imagine that their competitors are doing a happy dance.

Very sad news, I wonder if front projection will be the next cut..?

Jason

I think the problem is when you buy a panasonic Plasma or LCD display it age too well. It's a shame they don't get enough sells since they have the best display on the market with the proper price.

This is a huge shame. Is it possible that this is just rumour, and the company will reverse its stance? I hope so.

Maybe I got lucky and bought my very first HD Flat Panel two months ago!!! Panasonic Viera TC-P55ST50 after owning a Sony 1080i HD tube tv for 10 years that weighed over 200 lbs.

I'm really glad I was able to get the Panny this year if this information is true. Still, I'm kind of bummed that Panasonic too is leaving this space. Dang!

This doesn't read like an offical Panasonic announcenment when you go to the Reuters source. While it may be true, it;s seems more like market specualtion at this point. We will see if Pansonic verifies this down the line.

WOW, very sad. Glad I just got a VT50, if they exit for real I may need to save and buy another VT50 to have for the long haul. Until OLED get reasonable and performs well. Also a bit surprising as when I got my VT 50 it was built same month and even when they swapped it, same thing, and BB was selling them as fast as they were coming in.

I read the source article and think when it says 'cut' it means reduce; not stop altogether.

blairy

That's the way I read it too.

Plasma is on it's last legs. I don't see any investment in the technology going forward. I suspect next year's lineup will be the same as this years with maybe some minor enhancements that didn't require R&D expenditures. This will continue until they stop making them altogether.

Humm, either way it looks like im buying another plasma next year, just to make sure i have one

God, I hope Panasonic does not follow through with this. Looks like the Korea is slowly taking over the world one product at a time. Cars, televisions, appliances, and consumer electronics.

Looks like my Panasonic plasma just increased in resale value and put it on par with the Pioneer Kuro. WooHoo!!

Folks...calm down! It says CUT...not CEASE...as in make fewer units due to lower sales...no where does it say they are exiting the tv biz!

Aggh!! Why does the mass market insist on indirectly killing off the best TVs!? First Pioneer and now this. Luckily Samsung still makes a decent plasma. Hope they don't kick the bucket too.

Oh... yes, Alan seems to be right. According to this: http://www.whathifi.com/news/japan-panasonic-to-concentrate-on-50in-lcd-tv-displays-and-panels-for-smartphones-tablets

I think we need to calm down a little because what I read into this article was that Panasonic is cutting back on production not stopping altogether. They seem to be doing what Sony did for 2012 and that was releasing fewer models for the new year ahead. That being said "if" Panny does quit the tv buisness it will be sad because for me next to Sony they make some of the best tv's out there and their exit would be a big loss. But again I didnt look at the article as an exit for Panny but just a scale back in models released for 2013.

Sad day for Panasonic but I'm not surprised LED LCD's and LCD's are becoming more and more adopted than Plasmia screens.

I sure hope front projection isn't next. I just got a Panny AR-100U this past Spring, and love it. First 1080p device in my house. But I still want to go up to the AE-7000U or better in the future. I love Panny stuff.

That's from October 2011.

Things can change dramatically in a year, since we are in a economical crisis.


I hope this is an exageration, but we never know... Time will tell.

OMG,why don't you guys read a little better,it says cut,not cease! They are still going to put out plasma's ,just not at the volume they are now. Relax over there! It does not say they are exiting the tv biz. They might be coming out with something new,like OLED or something. Calm down already..

Good riddance. Who wants to deal with buzz, fan noise, line bleed, rapid flicker, auto brightness limiting, heat, dim picture (in 3D especially), image retention, color dithering, and at the end of the day still not have blacks as good as a full array local dimming LCD? Yes, I've had all these problems with my past plasmas, often all on the same units. They do win on image uniformity, viewing angle, motion blur (not judder), and 3D quality (if you can stand the dimness).

That isn't what the article says.

It says they are cutting (producing lower quantities) of panels for 2013 and that their priority will be smaller panels.

Nowhere does it say that they are exiting the TV business or doing away with PDP. At best we can take from the article that it will not be their priority.

It was only recently they announced plans to team up with Sony for OLED, so exiting TV production at this stage wouldn't make sense.
Edited by lyris - 10/17/12 at 9:38am