Matsushita to sell 37 inch LCD TV in Sept
Matsushita Electric Industrial, the parent company of Panasonic, has announced that they will launch a new 37 inch LCD TV in September - modifying their original policy of only selling LCD TVs for the 32 inch and smaller TV market. Matsushita was attempting to segment the market by reserving plasma television sets for those who wanted larger form factors and keeping the LCD market down at the low end. Unfortunately this policy resulted in Matsushita missing out on the growing demand for large screen LCD TV’s with companies such as Sony and Samsung eagerly fulfilling the consumer demand. Matsushita’s attempt at market segmentation was doomed to fail as LCD panels dropped in price and consumers increasingly saw less of a difference between plasma TVs and LCD TVs. It all boils down to money for Matsushita of course. Plasmas have higher gross profit margins than LCD panels so why not try and sell plasma displays right? Unfortunately it appears this decision has backfired on them and Matsushita now finds itself needing to catch up in the LCD market.
The new 37 inch LCD TV will be unveiled in Japan on September 1st for a price of $2508 (300,000 yen). No word on actual specs at this time but for that price, it better be a 1080p display.