14 DAY TRIAL // What we have here is one rumor whose rebuttal should actually be well received: Panasonic has stated, or one of its executives has, that the company has not, in fact, stopped developing Plasma screens.
A couple of days ago, Panasonic published the price list for its 2013 lineup of HDTVs, and also said it had stopped research into plasma technology. The company was going to focus on OLED technology instead.
The statement was made by Panasonic Display Vice President Kiyoshi Okamoto, so we suppose the world can be forgiven for taking it at face value.
Nevertheless, Henry Hauser, vice president of merchandising at Panasonic USA, has stated that the company will continue researching and improving Plasma.
“Reports that Panasonic will no longer develop and manufacture Plasma HDTVs are not correct,” he said.
“This week in New York City, Panasonic demonstrated the latest development of our gapless Plasma panel technology in our 2013 Smart VIERA ZT Series Plasma HDTV. The technology incorporated into our ZT Series Studio Master Panel will be the basis for continued plasma display panel development and production.”
Okamoto said that the ZT60 would use the “last plasma panel” from Panasonic's R&D section, and that the models scheduled for 2014 would use the same panels as today too.
Learning that plasma engineers have been repositioned to work on OLED instead added fuel to the implied choice to halt Plasma advances.
Obviously, it all was a misunderstanding. An internal one as much as it was between the company and the press.
“We believe there is still room for further improvement and intend to continue to research ways to take our Plasma technology to even higher levels where it also has the potential to be applied in our other Plasma series in the future,” Hauser said.