Panasonic Chief: Plasma is Company's Focus

In an interview with CNET at this year's Consumer Electronics Show, Panasonic USA CEO Yoshi Yamada said that his company's product focus is "very simple: plasma, plasma, plasma." Since reallocating marketing and HR resources to the plasma TV division in August 2004, the company has been the market leader in plasma sales every month since. According to Yamada, the company's market share climbed to 40-50% over the holiday season.

The Panasonic CEO also has some interesting things to say about LCD, SED and the future of the business. The full story is here:

http://news.com.com/Panasonics+plasma+pusher/2008-1041_3-6027524.html?tag=st.prev

I'm inclined to agree with Yamada's points about plasma's manufacturing and technological advantages over competing technologies, most specifically LCD. Many of the questions I get from readers of this blog and visitors to my BuyingHDTV.com site have to do with perceptions of plasma that are several years old. Many of the previous disadvantages to plasma, such as burn-in and high power consumption, while not totally mitigated have at least been softened enough so that they do not represent reason enough not to buy a plasma TV. I always encourage people to see as many of both technologies as they can with their own eyes and make a decision as to which they prefer. For me, although LCD is catching up in terms of both quality and size, plasma still wins out every time.