There’s something rotten in the state of LG. It seems the Korean manufacturer is having some trouble offloading its plasma TVs, with sales last February down some $35 million compared to the previous year. To be fair, it does appear to be a general trend in the TV industry, with LCDs being cheaper to produce at larger and larger sizes. (It used to be that LCDs larger than 42 inches were prohibitively expensive. Starting at that size, you usually went with plasma.) So LG will cut plasma production by 70,000 units per year from now on.
Somewhat related is that, of the plasmas it will produce, LG will be making them smaller for the Chinese market. The sweet spot seems to be sets in the 30-inch range, something the company expects to take off in anticipation of next year’s Olympics in Beijing.
LG Electronics De-Emphasizing Plasma TVs [PC Magazine]
LG to scale down TV panel size for China [Reuters]