Panasonic Confirms Lower-Priced 1080p 3D Plasma TV Line

Panasonic will round out its 3D TV offerings for “general distribution” in calendar 2010 with a GT25 series of lower-priced 1080p plasma 3D TVs, Henry Hauser, vice president of the company’s display group, confirmed in an interview Thursday. Shipping by late August will be 42- and 50-inch sets planned for “broader distribution” than the retailers that sold Panasonic’s first VT series of plasma 3D TVs when they were introduced in March, he told Consumer Electronics Daily.

Targeted accounts for the GT25 series will include retailers that haven’t been selling 3D sets of any brand, Hauser said, declining to name names because not all retailer agreements have been nailed down. He didn’t mention a 46-inch GT25-series plasma set that sources have told us Panasonic will sell only through Costco, at about $1,799 (CED July 22 p1).

The 50-inch model in the GT25 line will sell for a targeted $2,099, about $500 less than the same-sized model in the VT series, Hauser said. The 42-inch GT25 model, which has no direct counterpart in the VT series, will sell for about $1,699, he said. Panasonic will sell a 42-inch 1080p plasma 3D TV because the company has been told “smaller would be better for gaming,” Hauser said. As for Panasonic’s rationale for carrying a second 50-inch 3D set under the GT25 series, he called its screen size Panasonic’s “core volume zone."

The starkest difference between the GT25 series and the VT line is that a GT25 model won’t come bundled with a pair of Panasonic active-shutter 3D glasses as the VT models do, though GT25 TVs will have built-in emitters, Hauser said. For full 3D, buyers of the GT25 sets will need to buy aftermarket Panasonic active-shutter glasses at $149 a pair, he said. The decision not to bundle glasses with the GT25 sets was based almost entirely on getting the price as low as possible, Hauser said.