Sony looking to jump back into the plasma market?
by Darren Murph 
posted Jan 17th 2007 at 1:10PM
Okay, so maybe this report is crammed with hopes and dreams of a momentous comeback, but in all reality, we just don't envision this happening with market pressures as they are. Although Sony threatened to make an exit from the plasma market for a good while before actually pulling the proverbial cord, it seems that there's now a glimmer of hope that it'll bring those Sony-branded PDPs back. DigiTimes has it that Sony is "considering" its options and is currently in talks with Fujitsu Hitachi Plasma Display (FHP); interesting, Sony Taiwan said that it "had not received any notice about such a plan," and doubted this would go down due to a Samsung / Sony joint-venture S-LCD plant hitting volume production later this year. Granted, Sony has been known to bicker over the plummeting flat-panel prices, but could be looking for a way to effectively (and profitably) add to those record setting sales even more. Whatever the case, we're sure that potential plasma buyers wouldn't mind the added competition, but until this gets beyond the rumor mill, we're not looking over our shoulder in anticipation.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
HD Tom @ Jan 17th 2007 1:38PM
If I read correctly before, Sony hasn't produced a Plasma since May '05? It's funny because my local BJ's still sells them! They shows how many they made but didn't sell. If I were Sony, I'd stick w/ LCDs. They are the master - there is no comparison. At BJ's the LCD is sick compared to what appears to be the very weak contrast of their old plasma offering. Their LCD projections seem to have better contrast! Not everyone can be good at everything Sony. Stick w/ what you are good at!
Matteo @ Jan 17th 2007 2:55PM
I'm gonna have to agree, that Sony should stick with what it does best and that is making LCD. With a slow start in the LCD market Sony has made its way to Number One in the flat panel market. Sony has no need to make a plasma since LCD is now outselling plasmas. Finally, within the next couple of years we should see Sony OLED hit the market which will blow out any flat panel on the market to date. I'm sorry to say but i think plasma is a thing of the past and its only a matter of time where we'll see faster response times and better blacks
tcc3 @ Jan 17th 2007 6:17PM
If sony sticks to what they do best, they'd still be making trinitron based CRT HDs.
The LCDs are dramatically better, but thet still dont beat the CRTs.
Except in weight. Holy god are they heavy.
SimbaDogg @ Jan 17th 2007 10:55PM
That's probably one of the dumbest things i've ever heard...you think that they should STICK to LCDs because their current LCDs look better than models that are two years old? I also heard that Pentium is making a processor called a Core2Duo which is a lot better than their Pentium 4 with "Hyperthreading"...
Ben Hobbs @ Jan 18th 2007 12:55PM
Sony dont make their LCD panels, Samsung do.
Matteo @ Jan 18th 2007 8:53PM
Its obvious Ben Hobbs that you don't know what your talking about. Samsung DOES NOT make Sony's LCD panels. Sony and Samsung are in a joint-venture (if you don't know what joint-venture is, i would do a little research on the web). Its a 50/50 joint venture established in April 0f 2004 in order to create stable amorphous TFT LCD panel production. In addition, the Panel is only responsible for Size, Resolution, and Viewing Angle. All the circuitry are different between the two companies.