Most people haven't used the words 'Sony' or 'plasma' in the same sentence unless the word 'doesn't' was in there too over the last year. They stopped
shipping plasmas to the US market during the first quarter of 2005, but now it looks like they are going to stop shipping 'em entirely. Their global output has dropped dramatically over the last few years anyways, as they have been focusing mainly on LCDs (
Bravia) and rear-projection (
SXRD). Last years number of 100,000 shipped units was down 67% from the previous years number of 300,000. You can only imagine that this years number was even lower. Maybe if they would have made their own PDP manufacturer facility it would be a different story, but they had to buy other companies panels which resulted in a lower margin for profit. We'll tell you though, that when Sony had plasmas, they were nice.
Anyone have a Sony plasma? You like it?
posted Aug 3rd 2006 10:17AM
Nice? Really?
Sony's plasmas have always been considered in the UK to be second-tier behind Panasonic, Pioneer and Hitachi and generally fully in keeping with Sonys corporate arrogance of believing the Sony badge was good enough to make up the shortfall. Selling 42" plasmas with a fancy surround for double the superior competition is a tactic designed to ensnare the vain and the stupid. It isn't working and won't be in future either as the Sony name has no more cachet than any of the other top Japanese brands any more. Goes some way to explaining Sony's current general position in my opinion.
we need more hd channels when are they coming
sxrd rules goodbye to plasma