The one bright spot in plasma sales in recent months belongs largely to the technology’s 1080p units. Pioneer plans to ramp up its first line of 1080p models by October, following Matsushita and other makers in rolling out the increasingly popular so-called “full HD” models. Its units are designed to recreate deeper blacks than typical plasma and LCD monitors.
Pioneer’s plasma operations experienced a loss in the second quarter of 2007. Fierce competition brought lower prices and cut profits to a bare minimum, and LCD sales again cut deeply into plasma’s results in what has become a quarter-to-quarter trend in the past several reporting periods.
Pioneer’s new models will focus on the larger screen categories (50- and 60-inch units), and will likely cost up 50 percent more than competitors’ plasma screens of similar size, according to Reuters.
Pioneer plans to ship about 720,000 of the plasma units through March 2008. By comparison, Matsushita is targeting shipments of up to 5 million plasma units in the same period, using its Panasonic brand.
