Pioneer pull plug on Plasma

[admin]

CONSUMER electronics company Pioneer, manufacturer of what many regard as the best quality plasma panel in the world, has announced it will pull out of the display business by March 2010.

The company decided to withdraw after recording its fifth straight year of losses in the plasma division which, coupled with the economic downturn, forced a restructure of the business.

In the past 12 months the company has recorded losses totalling $1.3 billion. Plasma panels account for just 14 per cent of the Pioneer business globally.

Despite the announcement, Pioneer intends to release its ninth generation Kuro plasma panel into the market in the coming weeks and will still offer five years warranty as well as support for existing customers.

It is unknown if Pioneer's Australian arm of the business, located in Braeside in Melbourne and employing 100 people, will suffer any job losses.

The company is awaiting its new Australian operating budget, which is due at the start of the Japanese fiscal year on April 1, before it implements any changes.

Pioneer Australia spokesman Michael Broadhurst said the decision to withdraw from display was good news for other more successful divisions of the company.

[gordon_s1942]

ok, the cat is in among the pidgeons. So who will be the next to fly the coop and how will the buying public respond to this news?

[eaglem]

Although Pioneer produce the better Plasma TV's and Blu-ray DVD Players their prices are a little to high for the average consumer to pay which would probably account for their lack of sales turnover. That is a pity because Sony and Samsung will now get away with selling Crap products.

[Godzilla]

Unfortunately for all the better manufacturers, when time get tough consumers who are willing to spend tend to go for the cheapest.

Looks like a great time for Samsung, LG, and Goldstar....and techs that are going to be repairing them.

[iwacelect]

very shortly there will be no high end plasmas, well no plasmas at all, lcds and projectors will be the only large screens/pix you'll be able to buy, and buy'm cheap get ext waranty and out of warranty toss it!

[mate]

Looks like a great time for Samsung, LG, and Goldstar....and techs that are going to be repairing them.

LG 'IS' Goldstar. Lucky Goldstar is his name. I hear Palsonic is making a comeback. But it is still the same shit.

As for the plasma and pioneer story, it is kind of old news in the game. Pioneer have been running on the sales of DVD players for years. There have been plenty of job losses at Pioneer in the last 6 months (funny how people lose thier jobs when they don't service their customers) NEC had the same issue.
Pioneer obviously have found that the deal they have done to take panasonic panels for the next 2 years was not going to work in their favour as everybody heard about it and realised it isn't going to be worth paying top dollar for Pioneer and getting panasonic rebadged.