Paul Gray, who is the director of TV research for DisplaySearch in Europe put forward his thoughts
regarding the plasma TV discussion. Gray says that he thinks the Plasma TV’s sales could be reduced
to as little as one percent of the entire TV market with the next couple of years. That is something
that 10 years ago seemed unthinkable. However, when you look at all the technological
advancements that have been made over the years it is easy to see why.
On Saturday, Gray was in Sardinia for an IFA conference and he showed a presentation the pointed
out that in just a couple of years which would be 2016, that Plasma TV’s would virtually be no where
to be found in the TV market which is alarming.
Gray stated that he thinks plasma is going to constantly go down in size and he added that in fact the
need for them in stores has been slowing down substantially and that shipments of them have
started to drop off already. So, it seems like that are already in the early stages of slowly phasing
them out and that will make them harder to come by as the years roll on.
He added that over 10 years ago, when companies decided to heavily invest in plasma, many where
unsure if LCD could build bigger size TV’s over 50-inches and what the impact on their revenue
stream would be if they could not do it.
Paul Gray said that both heavyweights in the industry in LG and Samsung, both heavily invested in
both the plasma and LCD industry. Panasonic decided it was best for them to go with plasma,
however if you look at the state of the LCD industry now, they can easily manufacture TV’s to
basically any size right up to over 100 inches. The growth in the improvement of technology is one of
the reasons that they can do this.
Gray finished by saying that Panasonic have always been the benchmark when it comes to the
highest quality plasma TV and that they are looking at moving on from that kind of product.
He still thinks that the giant of the tech world in Panasonic will still try their best to keep the plasma
culture alive with the products that is has made for a later date, by specifically aiming their products
at people who are home theatre fanatics. Because that gives customers the best possible picture
quality when they are watching their favourite shows and sporting events.
