Pioneer has expanded on its announcement that it will no longer be producing its own plasma televisions, confirming that it will switch focus to in-car electronics and Blu-ray players.
Although the company insists that flat panel displays remain central to its business, Pioneer’s decision to stop making its own screens has been attributed to the financial burden of competing with some of its competitors' huge production plants.
“We have judged that maintaining the cost competitiveness of plasma display panels at projected sales volumes will be difficult going forward.
“Accordingly, we have decided to terminate in-house plasma display panel production and to procure these panels externally, after panel production for our next series of models is complete,” the company revealed in a statement.
New growth
However, television production’s loss is satnav’s gain – with the company refocusing its efforts on other areas.
“We aim to compensate for cutbacks in the plasma display business by driving further expansion in our growth businesses,” Pioneer adds.
“This will be done by shifting related personnel and other business resources to the Car Electronics business; the professional sound and visual (Pro SV) business, which involves DJ equipment; and the audio/video product business, including Blu-ray Disc related products.”
With Blu-ray finally flinging aside rival HD DVD in the format war, Pioneer is one of a number of companies keen to cash in on the expected growth of sales. The company added: "Pioneer will concentrate internal product development on Blu-ray Disc players, which are expected to find growing adoption worldwide.”
