14 DAY TRIAL // Since plasma appeared, it has dominated the large screen class for 2 main reasons. First it's a known fact that large LCDs are difficult to manufacture. And then there's the quality of the picture which, up until now has left the LCDs in the dust when compared to plasmas. Anything from viewing angle to color richness was better with plasma than with LCD. But that has changed throughout time and now the LCDs are coming back.
As with any technology that sells well, LCDs have been improved over the years in the 2 areas that made them weaker than plasmas. First, larger and larger LCDs appeared with panel factories concentrating on developing ways to build LCDs that were as large as plasmas but that could also cost less. And then the picture, viewing angle and finally response times improved by a large margin. Now large LCDs are comparable to plasmas in most parameters and they generally cost just as much and in some cases even less.
In the 40" segment for example, most plasmas are unable to achieve 1080p resolutions needed to watch a full resolution HD movie, while LCDs already offer this resolution as native. As a result, plasma will show a 1080p movie resampled at 720p while the LCD will show it in its full splendor. Motive for which 40" LCDs are starting to overcome plasmas in the market with actual sales going even higher than expected. $75 billion USD in 2008 and $93 billion USD in 2010 are the projected figures for LCD sales while plasmas will register $24 billion USD profit in 2008 and then enter a decline in 2009.
As a matter of fact, this is no surprise since many panel manufacturers and integrators have closed their plasma factories and plan only to produce LCDs. Sony and CPT have already announced that they will only produce LCDs and more producers are expected to follow that trend. Although plasmas larger than 50" still sell well, producers like Samsung and LG have already announced the availability of 70" LCDs. And with large LCDs flooding the market, I think I can safely assume that plasma's days are numbered.