August 19th, 2009
Mid-week HDTV news: Plasmas are hot sellers (again); Vizio remains tops in LCDs; Sony delays next OLED set
The economic downturn no doubt helped push some manufacturers (like Pioneer) out of the plasma market, but the recession may now be saving plasmas from the brink of obsolescence. According to a new report from Quixel Research, plasma HDTVs have zoomed to a huge gain in 2Q of 2009, with 42 percent more units sold than in the first quarter. Aggressive price cutting has made plasmas far more affordable than they’ve ever been, and mainstream buyers are finally paying attention. Plasmas with screen sizes of 50 inches are now available for $800 to $900, which is a few hundred dollars less than many 52-inch LCD sets. Of course, those LCDs are full 1080p HD, and the sub-$1,000 plasmas are 720p, but since most people can’t tell the difference between them, they probably won’t miss the higher resolution.
One of the companies that abandoned plasma, Vizio, isn’t exactly hurting from the decision, as Vizio tops the LCD TV charts again in 2009 2Q in units shipped, according to a new iSuppli report. The company slightly increased its market share—going from 21.4% to 21.7%—while Samsung closed in with a 21.3% share, after having dipped to 17.8% in the first quarter. Given plasmas’ sales boost, it’s no surprise that Panasonic (6%) jumped ahead of Sharp (5.3%) in the most recent quarter, while Sony slips again to 11.9%.
Given Sony’s woes in the HDTV market, the electronics giant continues to be in a cost-cutting mode in order to boost profits. That means everybody’s favorite future display technology, OLED, is getting moved to the back burner, according to the Wall Street Journal. The company had hoped to release a 27-inch OLED set this year as a sequel to its exquisite but ridiculously priced 11.1-inch XEL-1. But the outlay to produce the new set would be too much to offset whatever sales the set could muster, so the 27-inch model has been shelved at least until next year. Given that the XEL-1 is available for $2,500, you can imagine how much the larger version would sell for. Clearly, there’s a chicken-and-egg dynamic at work here, which Sony Chief Executive Howard Stringer summarizes succinctly as “”We got great praise for [OLED], but then you don’t sell any.” The way to sell more, of course, is to reduce the price to something more palatable, but Stringer is clearly in no mood to suffer the losses that the price cut would demand. At least in this economy. Maybe Sony should go back to selling plasmas.
Sean Portnoy spent several years as an editor at Computer Shopper magazine, most recently serving as online executive editor. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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