Pioneer picks Panasonic as plasma telly partner

[admin_exported]

Pioneer and Panasonic are to align their plasma TV operations and integrate their research and development efforts, the new partners said today.
Just when I had made up my mind what plasma to get!

 

[Anonymous]

Sounds quality those two brands pitched in together. Can't wait to see what they can come up with.

 

[Anonymous]

its only the panels, all the inside tech is still there own, although i cant say the panasonic screens will be better than the ones pioneer made.

 

[FuzzyinLondon]

The panels that Pioneer made used a lot of their own secret technologies to give us the Deep Waffle Rib plasma cell structure and the Crystal Emissive Layer. If they want Panasonic to produce panels for them incorporating those features, they'll have no choice but to share some of those secrets - it'll be in the specs they handover to Panasonic. It will, in effect, become more like the LCD market where a number of different companies use the same panels, such as the way Sony buy panels from Samsung. It'll be interesting to see if Pioneer share any of their picture processing secrets. After all, it will only really be the electronics and the design of the set that will set them apart from Panasonic. It'll be at least another year before we see any results from this partnership though. The 9G Pioneer sets being released this summer will be the last to feature Pioneer panels and there will be no plasma smaller than 50" as they switch to LCD for smaller sizes.