As an industry standard in computer displays, TV sets and a lot of other applications, liquid crystal displays, LCDs for short, are beating up just about any other standard that tries to gain a foothold and acceptance on the market. After successfully replacing the old CRT displays in most computers and having a good market share in the TV sets segment, LCDs are now taking over the plasma display panels, or PDPs for short. As the competition grows stronger and stronger between the two standards, prices for PDP using appliances are dropping like rocks and plasma displays are gaining some more acceptance.

According to the market research firm iSupply, cited by the news site DigiTimes, falling average selling prices, ASPs for short, will only allow plasma based display panels a brief period of growth that is expected to reach its peak in 2008. As selling prices fall, the entire PDP market will become less and less profitable, prompting manufacturers and vendors alike to reorient themselves towards better paying avenues. The decline of the PDP selling prices can be seen as the natural following of several factors like strong competition for a rather small market, high output efficiency from big PDP manufacturers, ever increasing competition from LCD and other display solutions and declining costs for prime materials.

While PDP revenues registered at a global scale were around $7.7 billion in 2006, they are expecting to reach $8.6 billion this year and to top $10.2 billion during 2008. This increase would mean a jump of 18.5 percent from 2007 as the production capacity for PDP measuring 50 inch or larger is expected to grow. After 2008, the entire PDP market is very likely to enter a decrease phase in the revenues department, going back to $8.7 billion in 2011. Among leading plasma display panel manufacturers and vendors, two Korean companies are taking the lead: LG Electronics and Samsung SDI, alongside Matsushita. Matsushita led the PDP market with a 31.5 percent market share, LG Electronics came in second with 24.7% of shipments, while Samsung was on the last place with a 22.9% share.

"The PDP market encountered tightness in supply in the first quarter due to factors including panel makers scaling back production," said Riddhi Patel, principal analyst for television systems at iSuppli.
"Because of this, most panel makers have cut their production utilization rates to around 70%, except for Matsushita, which remains at 100%. In order for plasma manufacturers to continue to be successful in the market, they must weather the storm of LCDs while focusing consumer interest on PDPs' attractive form factors and reasonable prices."