Pioneer To sell LCD screens and a high-end 80 inch Plasma

[Josh]

Wow... sounds like Pioneer is done with manufacturing their own TVs. Panasonic will do their Plasmas and Sharp will do their LCDs. Crazy

And what is this about Sharp making the new Sony LCDs? I thought they sharped a fab with Samsung?

[Bango]

Originally Posted by Josh

And what is this about Sharp making the new Sony LCDs? I thought they sharped a fab with Samsung?

Yeah I was wondering about that...I have an XBR4 and have always been under the impression that Samsung had ties with Sony.

[jcs913]

[QUOTE=Josh;681684]Wow... sounds like Pioneer is done with manufacturing their own TVs. Panasonic will do their Plasmas and Sharp will do their LCDs. Crazy

I still think Pioneer will put together the plasmas and use their R&D for all the 'guts'. I see that they are going to buy the panels from Panasonic. Things still seem cloudy.

[unreal1080p]

A senior Pioneer executive in Japan told SmartHouse today that without the LCD TV deal Pioneer would not have survived in the flat panel TV market. "The arrangement with Sharp will allow us to offer plasma at the high end and LCD, while also allowing us to compete in the popular sized LCD TV market where we were unable to compete in the past with plasma due to manufacturing problems and cost of development".

They addeed: "By outsourcing production with Panasonic, Sharp and Hitachi we can leverage our Pioneer retail relationships into the LCD TV market while also offering consumer the choice of Pioneer brand LCD or plasma TVs.

I'm actually kinda ok with this "outsourcing" as long as their proprietary technology makes it in their Plasma's.

The articles mentionned that they have 3 plants, 1 of which is closing down and the other 2 will be used to assemble the TV's. Makes sense: 1 plant to assemble their new LCD's and the other one to assemble their Plasma's.

Looks like new 50" and 60" Plasma's from Pioneer this year and next year a new 80" model

I'm ok with Pioneer diversifying their business in order to remain alive and healthy... as long as they continue to sell Plasma's. Wether or not they are 100% manufactured by them is not that big of a concern --> I'm sure that Pioneer's best experts in manufacturing will be relocated to Matsushita (Panasonic).

It makes sense for Pioneer to make this move because 80% of the population goes for low end... which they can now compete in with their LCD's... while the other 20% goes for high end... which they will continue to compete in with the BEST Plasma's on the market.

[Brian Cash]

Originally Posted by Josh

Wow... sounds like Pioneer is done with manufacturing their own TVs. Panasonic will do their Plasmas and Sharp will do their LCDs. Crazy

And what is this about Sharp making the new Sony LCDs? I thought they sharped a fab with Samsung?

well atleast there using the best company out there for lcds