DAN COSTA
Pulling the Plug on Plasma
T
he story is nothing new: A superior technology that offers higher quality, an enhanced user experience, and better value gets killed off by a technologically inferior rival. VHS killed Betamax. Plain CDs outlasted Super Audio CDs. Vista wiped out Mac OS X. Wait. There are exceptions to the rule. Still, there’s every reason to think it’s happening again. The current economic crisis is hurting the entire electronics industry, but television manufacturers are literally running away from plasma HDTVs. A research report released by DisplaySearch this week showed plasma shipments in the first quarter are down 22 percent from last year, and few industry analysts think plasma will rebound. And that’s a shame. Plasma technology has a lot of advantages. Its fast-motion performance is perfect for watching sports, its darker black levels are great for watching movies, and in larger sizes (think 50 inches and up), plasma sets have typically offered more competi-
44 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION JUNE 2009
tive prices. Yes, they use more power than LCDs of similar size, but this is hardly a key factor for most HDTV buyers. Despite the best efforts of the editors at PCMag.com and GoodCleanTech.com, most people don’t know or even care how much power a prospective HDTV uses. Yet vendor after vendor is pulling the plasma plug. Just look at the last few months. Vizio, the number two flat-panel television vendor in the U.S., decided it was ending its plasma production to focus exclusively on LCD HDTVs. Vizio made its mark selling affordable sets direct and at retail, so perhaps it’s to be expected that the company wouldn’t hang in with premium plasmas, which tend to come in very large sizes. For sets under 42 inches, LCD TVs have always had an edge in terms of price, so it makes sense that a value player would choose to focus on that segment of the market. But that doesn’t explain Pioneer. A couple years ago, Pioneer released its KURO line of plasmas, probably the most advanced HDTVs ever made. Last year’s
