News.blog: Pioneer drops plasma production

Pioneer plans to let someone else make its plasma TV panels, according to several reports.

Reuters reported on Tuesday that the company will cease production of its own plasma panels because that portion of its business continues to lose money. The company will still sell plasma sets, but plans to get its plasma panels from Matsushita, parent company of Panasonic, the Nikkei business daily reported.

Panasonic is the biggest plasma TV vendor in the world, shipping nearly 40 per cent of all plasma displays, while Pioneer ranks fifth, shipping just over 6 per cent of plasmas worldwide in the fourth quarter of 2007, according to DisplaySearch.

So far, Pioneer isn't confirming or denying the reports ("Our headquarters are planning to publicly discuss our TV strategy at the end of this week, so we'll have no information until then," said a spokesperson), but it doesn't look good.

Pioneer has been repositioning its plasma business over the last few years as a premium brand, most recently pushing its "Kuro" technology, which emphasises deep black levels and contrast, at CES 2007 and 2008. 

Though it appears Pioneer will continue to sell plasmas sets, if it's not making the panels, it seems unlikely that it will prolong the life of its Kuro technology. Pioneer is, however, already planning to buy liquid crystal display panels from Sharp in order to start selling LCD TVs. LCD sets have quickly become the fastest-growing TV technology, displacing traditional cathode-ray tube sets, as well as rear-projection and plasma.