No Sony Plasmas?

[MAGVIEW]

I am looking at buying a 42" plasma maybe a TH-42PA60A and while shopping I've noticed Sony don't seem to do plasmas, why would this be. Is it a dying technology?

[Maton]

so they dont ruin plasmas like they have everything else they make

[crossy@home]

so they dont ruin plasmas like they have everything else they make

Speaking as a long time (got my KV1830as in 1976) Sony fan, Sony could not make a decent plasma to save their lives, so they got out of that technology.

Rob.

[ozrgv]

As mentioned above I believe, several years ago Sony did have both LCD & Plasmas but they were a bit crap so I would guess as Sony often tends to, they are putting all their eggs in one basket so to speak.

You may have already read that considering the number of brands, there are actually only a few who manufactures of Plasmas (& several different brands source major components such as the screens etc all from the same few manufactures). Clearly its expensive to tool up for a plasma factory & Sony already made LCD (& I suspect Sony would rather shoot themselves in the foot than actully pay someone else for their components )

As far as Plasma being a 'dying' product because they dont support it - being facetious I reckon that if Sony supports something then its evidence of increasing the likeyhood of it disappear from the market soon

eg anyone remember Beta video, video 8, video 8 digital, DAT, minidisk & several other Sony propietry products & formats. I also wonder about the long term future of the 'memorystuck'

They jury is still out on Blu-Ray (although, like CDs, I suspect it may be an example of a rare sucess for sony )

[BribieG]

Sony made a squillion on their CRT televisions and computer monitors, based on their TRINITRON technology, which was somewhat different to regular colour TVs. I've still got a 51cm trinitron and it's a nice little unit.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinitron

Remember it's not so long ago - the TV ad with the fish jumping into the boat with the big BLACK tv on board? "It's a Sony".

Whilst rolling in the dough they did what so many successful (and smug) Jap companies have done (for example Mazda in the car industry) they woke up one morning and the market had moved on, leaving them bobbing in their wake.

I suppose that rather than try to completely re-invent themselves on all fronts they specialised, and brought out some funky new stuff like Bravia etc.

(And so did Mazda, specialising on smaller funky machines. zoom zoom.)

[Basil1503559642]

Hi

Don't hold me to the exact detail and dates(in my Computer in Sydney), but Sony made the decision(although reviewed several times) to abandon LCD and Plasma development in the 1990's. The general consensus at the time was that they were working(and probaly still are) on Technologies that would surpass both Formats. Japanese Sony executives at the Time were Quoted as saying "Plasma had no long term future as a display device". They obviously ran into some 'dead-ends' with these new Formats(Laser TV etc) and as the Co. restructured the New Executives(2000-2001) entered into an agreement to share Samsungs LCD expertise as a full partner. What Sony traded to be able to get a foothold in LCD's so late in the picture is the real Question.

Rant over,its good to get away from the Toppy Thread.

Regards

Basil

[keiron]

I am looking at buying a 42" plasma maybe a TH-42PA60A and while shopping I've noticed Sony don't seem to do plasmas, why would this be. Is it a dying technology?

They stopped "making" plasmas last year. Although when they were doing them, it was with other manufacturers panels. The reason is that Sony never built it's own panel factory.