Matsushita Says Plasma is Getting Hard!

<August 27, 2008><Nikkei-TOKYO>In a report appearing today in the Nikkei, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. has announced that it plans to add up to six models to its Viera line of plasma television products in the Japan domestic market. And in an interesting twist representing a first for the company, three of the new models will come with a 1-terabyte hard drive to facilitate recording programs.

The company says that customers will find it very easy to record their favorite shows thanks to a simple on-screen menu system accessed via remote control from their easy chair.

The three models with the recording feature are sized at 42-inch, 50-inch, and a 46-inch. The 42-inch model is planned to sell at ¥420,000 (a little over $3,800 at current exchange rates) and the 50-inch model is planned at ¥540,000 (a little over $4,900). No pricing was announced for the 46-inch version.

The other screen sizes of non-hard drive models will include 58-inch, 65-inch, and 103-inch models. The 58-inch model is expected to sell for ¥600,000 (a little under $5,500). No price was announced for the 65-inch…or for the 103-inch – which the company says will be sold on a “made to order” basis.

Strategically, the company says that it expects larger screen sizes to become more popular and this announcement beefs up their assortment to take advantage of this trend. In fact, the company says that it expects 37-inch and larger screens to account for about 40 percent of the domestic market of 10 million units this year.

There was no information presented about plans to market these products in export markets such as North America or Europe.