Pioneer to Exit Flat Panel Television Market

Industry giant Pioneer has announced they will exit the television market by March of 2010 and concentrate their efforts on the car audio industry.  This is a shock to many of my dealers who were Pioneer video dealers and sold the brand as their top of the line offering.  And I have to say, of all the televisions I've seen in my visits to audio/video stores over the past couple of years, the Pioneer's had the best picture, by far. 

Pioneer's announcement comes on the heels of a report that sales of flat panel televisions dropped for the first time in history during the 4th quarter of 2008.  With a glut of flat panels on the market, look for prices to continue to drop on larger televisions (42" and higher) in the coming months.  

The rumors of Pioneer exiting the television market surfaced late last week.  During visits to dealers in Nebraska, Missouri and Kansas previous to the rumors coming out, I was told by the Pioneer dealers that they were being offered some sweet deals that would pair Pioneer Elite Kuro flat panel plasma units with either the Pioneer Elite Kuro projector or with Blu-Ray players.  One dealer told me they got a deal where they bought the 60" Kuro plasma flat panel and got the Elite projector for $1200 invoice cost.  Normal invoice cost is over $6000 dollars!  When the dealer asked the distributor if they were discontinuing the line, he was told, "No, we're just giving a helluva deal on some Pioneer products."  

Pioneer announced last year that they would no longer be manufacturing their own panels for their Elite plasma televisions.  They said they had entered a partnership with Panasonic to make the Pioneer Elite flat panels beginning later this year   Panasonic was in the midst of building their fifth facility for plasma production, but delays have pushed back the opening of that factory.  With the delay in the new facility, plus Panasonic cranking out their own televisions in their other factories, it became evident that they would not be able to provide plasma panels to Pioneer in a timely fashion.

Add to this that Pioneer's video division has lost millions of dollars annually over the past four years - and that the outlook for 2009 was bleak, at best - the company decided to pull the plug on video and concentrate on their car audio division.  Well, this is somewhat curious, as well, as car audio sales have been plummeting over the past five to seven years as new cars have incorporated some decent sounding factory systems in their vehicles.  And with the significant drop in new car sales over the past 18 months, car audio has become less and less important.  

As I said, when I was looking at flat panel televisions to buy last year, the best picture, by far, of all the ones I saw were the 50" and 60" Pioneer Elite Kuro plasma models.  The picture was vivid and vibrant, the detail was exceptional, the black level and contrast were both superb, the look of the chassis exuded elegance and class.  The only problem was - well, two problems - the Pioneer at dealer cost was well above my budget, and we didn't have the space to put a 50" television in our family room.  I went with a great television for my budget, the Samsung 46" LCD 650 series. (You can read about the process of buying the Samsung here.) 

And it may get worse for the television industry before it gets better.  Rumors and reports are that many of the manufacturers are hemorraging money at an unbelievable pace.  While it could be good for consumers in the short run with lower prices on the horizon, we could see some companies exit the television manufacturing market place - like Pioneer - or cease overall operations all together.  Oh, there's always going to be televisions to buy, but the number of choices may dwindle.  And that may be very soon.  

(Update - Pioneer announced in late January 2011 that they would grant Sharp a license to use the Pioneer Elite name on a series of high-end flat screen televisions.)  

Comments

[Romie Eden]

Television manufacturing industries, those who produces high quality products, are becoming less profitable than those manufacturing firms who produce low quality and lower prices. The people who are at the top level of living status will most likely to buy products from the leading manufacturers of television but those people who are at the bottom level or the ordinary people more aggravatingly the poor will buy television with lower prices.

[TV Stands]

When it comes to TV brand I prefer Samsung since I love the quality of their products I have tries and tested their products for several years. I still son't get it why would pioneer exit the flat panel television when flat screen Tv's are really in demand these days.

[Furniture Trends]

I am an LG man myself, I'v had a few TV's in my time and found that LG offer great value on larger TV's. On the 3D side LG's glasses do not cost a packet so the whole family can enjoy a 3d film at the same time

[glass tv stand]

I don't have a pioneer TV but I know that the quality of there TV's are high. Well I hope that this is a good decision for them.