Panasonic who has made a name for itself selling plasma TVs is set to take on Samsung and LG with a new generation of LED and LCD TVs following their acquisition of Hitachi’s entire stake in an LCD TV manufacturing business.
As a result of the acquisition, Panasonic will end up owning 92 per cent of IPS Alpha Technology. The rest of the shares are owned by a Japanese bank.
In Australia, Panasonic has recently expanded their LED TV offering with the company positioning their Plasma TV range at the top end and their LED/LCD models in the mid to small display market.
The Japanese company, who is currently rolling out their 3D TV range in Australia, aims to be a major player in the 3D TV market after claiming that plasma delivers a “superior” 3D experience over LED or LCD technology.
Researchers recently predicted that sales of 3D plasma TVs will rocket in the next three years, with 86 per cent of all plasmas sold in the market to be 3D ready.
Currently Panasonic Australia is asking consumer to pay for their 3D glasses. Samsung is giving theirs away for free.
According to research company, Displaybank, plasma is set to make a comeback off the back of 3D TV.
Jusy Hong, senior analyst at Displaybank, said: “3D PDP TV is expected to appeal to consumers from a more reasonable price perspective point as the product widens the price gap from highly priced 3D LED LCD TV.
“Compared to LCD, PDP has relatively lesser cost increase factors that consequently lead to increased profitability on PDP industry such that the share of 3D PDP TV in all PDP TV market is expected to sharply increase.
He added: “PDP industry suffers from lesser production capacity as well as marketing capability compared to LCD and from not having new investments that market expansion will become difficulty due to the limit in production even with the recognition coming from consumers.”
“3D PDP TV will remain at the limit of replacing 2D PDP TV under the limited PDP TV market.”
