Pioneer to Stop Plasma Manufacturing, to Add LCDs

WOW!!  Well, there goes the neighborhood.  From best to nearly the worst in a stroke of a pen.  Sharp’s aren’t all that great when it comes to the calibration aspect (one of the hardest panels if not THE hardest panel to cal).  Hopefully, calibration controls will be user friendly.  However, out of the box, Sharp’s are extremely high in temperature.  It’ll be interesting to see…although I don’t expect anything all that great.

I agree SB.  I can’t believe Pioneer would do such a thing even though I think I know how they got there.  They went down the same path as Fujitsu, trying to put exclusivity into their Elite line.  Why in the world would they prevent smaller dealers from selling their full product line?  I know there are plenty of dealers that believe exclusivity is good, because you’re most definitely product blocking a nearby competitor, but it many ways it doesn’t make sense.  It’s not good for the consumer and cleary not good for a manufacturer.  They spent so much money making their plasma displays the best on the market and then limit who can sell them.  Bunch of dumbassess

If your product is not priced competitively you loose market share it’s a simple process but Pioneer never figured it out.

This is a stupid move,there is still demand for plasma.
Why would anybody buy a Pioneer TV now if they use substandard displays?

Farewell Pioneer Elite!  I really hope they can create a videophile product with Sharp.  So much for the true black plasma prototype from CES.  Totally sucks…

Not so quick with the dire expectations for Pioneer. I fully expect Pioneer to continue their KURO product line….it’s just that they won’t manufacture in in a plant thaey own. They’ll have Sharp or some other plasma panel manufacturer make the glass to their specifications using their new plasma technology.

Pioneer finally realized that Sony xbr LCD are better overall tv and they just could not compete in price or quality. Going forward the Sony XBR series will be the best flat panel displays money can by farewell elite/kuro overpriced trash. good ridden

” Pioneer will stop producing plasma displays in-house because of high costs, the company announced Friday (pdf link). “

read carefully. Does it say pioneer will stop making plasmas. Or pioneer will stop producing plasma displayes in-house”

The kuro will live on….

XBR FTL !!!

everyone knows the 81 samsung is the best LCD ever created.

Mike, the 81 Samsung isn’t the best LCD ever for one simple reason.  Its screen is just as reflective, if not more, than many plasma screens.  The reflective screen defeats the purposes of speccing out a LCD display for a particular room.  For this reason, why would anyone choose the Samsung 81 over a Pioneer KURO?  You simply wouldn’t.

Now if I were speccing a LCD for a room with glare concerns, I would clearly go with a Sony XBR LCD.

How can any manufacture make money when they for 4 plus years could not even produce what they had PO’s for. The reason more dealers where not added is there was not enough product to sell the dealers they already had. The Kuro’s are the best picture currently avalible. However this is a snapshot view as the specs are constantly improving in all formats. Sony rocks on LCD but they are horible to order from if you are a non-stocking dealer. Hello Planar, so sad Pioneer.

Unbelievable!  The company that runs away with all of the outstanding press, awards, tech advancements, etc. etc. is now planning to outsource what they are known for!???  OHMYGOSH…This is like Rolex contracting with Timex to build their watches…There has to be some serious stuff going on at Pioneer…

Why are you guys so suprised??  They haven’t made any money in 2-3 years.  Their business model is screwed up, and we ALL knew it.  Selling a really high end product, through a few dealers, and then selling your base product to a big box retailer who had no idea how to sell your product equals no profit.  And you LCD guys, please get off your knee’s.  Yes there are some good ones, but please don’t sound as ignorant as the people who buy LCD’s on this site.  Save that for Electronic House or somewhere.  This is Big Boy territory.

I am not surprised, really.  The deteriorating profit margins of flat panels are taking a very heavy toll on manufacturers as well as resellers.  But I have to differ with you regarding their marketing.  Pioneer Elite has always been a really high end product and Pioneer had no trouble selling it to discriminating consumers.  Elite as a brand has been around for 20 years at least, and was always very limited distribution, high end product.  It has worked very well.  I’m thinking there is some other reason why they are going down this path.  Maybe some bad business decisions?  Like buying NEC?

I get the point you are making, but I also ask this. If Pioneer sets were sold to “every” discriminating customer who needed a TV in a given year I still dont think it would be enough TV’s to be profitable.  In what way has Elite worked well?  They cant fill a PO 1/3 of the time.  Awesome product no doubt.  I totally agree on the bad business decision to buy NEC.  I’m still trying to figure that one out.

In a market where profits are so slim, exclusivity within a brand is bad for business.  That was their primary bad business decision.  There is not other way to look at this.