Samsung Confirms Year-End Plasma Halt to Focus on Ultra HD, Curved TVs

Dealers reacted with resignation Wednesday to the news that Samsung is exiting the plasma TV business (CED July 2 p5). Samsung confirmed Wednesday it will end production of plasma TVs at the end of the year “due to changes in market demands.” The company is “committed to providing consumers with products that meet their needs, and will increase our focus on growth opportunities in UHD TV’s and Curved TV’s,” Samsung said.

It was “the first we heard of it,” said Bjorn Dybdahl, owner of Bjorn’s, San Antonio, Texas, when we spoke to him Wednesday, though it wasn’t unexpected. At a meeting Wednesday, Bjorn’s staffers had said they'd be surprised if Samsung continued with plasma based on sales trends. While purists still prefer plasma technology to LCD, when Panasonic decided to get out of the market at the end of the year, “we felt it was the end,” Dybdahl told Consumer Electronics Daily. His AV retailer peers “feel the same way,” he said. Knowing now about Samsung’s decision makes it “easier from an inventory point of view,” he said.

Bob Cole, president of World Wide Stereo, Montgomeryville, Pennsylvania, said it’s “sad … that a product can’t make it on simply being better than what else is available,” reflecting the attitude of specialty dealers going back to the Pioneer Kuro days. “It’s actually more melancholy,” he said, but “it’s the natural course of things."

Samsung’s decision won’t have a big impact at Bjorn’s, which had already begun scaling back plasma orders. The retailer sold four plasma TVs in June, compared with 47 units the year earlier, he said. “We were de-emphasizing it already,” Dybdahl said, “and now that they're going to get out of it, we will get out of it and not even bother with it.” Bjorn’s showed eight Samsung plasma models Wednesday on its website ranging from $429 for a 51-inch model to $3,099 for a 64-inch model.

Where the plasma TV customer will head now is uncertain, Dybdahl said. New LED-based LCD TVs with backlit local dimming are “becoming very helpful” as an upsell feature, he said. “The only trouble is the pricing is a little higher [than plasma],” he said, while plasma TVs have become a value purchase. Dybdahl said he can’t talk about OLED as a possible plasma alternative “until we get involved with LG.”

Cole gave OLED a “maybe” as a buying option for the video purist. So far, Cole said, there has been a 50-50 divide among shoppers who would have bought a plasma TV in the past. Bargain hunters are finding other options and purists are stepping up to 4K Ultra HD, Cole said. But the departure of plasma at a time when there’s a gaggle of new TV technology terms including LED, OLED, curved, 4K and Ultra HD has muddled the picture for consumers, he said. On customers’ response to Ultra HD so far, Cole said, “not so much.” Curved has “proved exciting, but confusion still reigns overall,” he said.

Consumers have been known to surprise dealers, and Dybdahl is reporting a positive response to Ultra HD TVs from Sony and Samsung. While he had doubts about how consumers would take to the curved concept, “customers are speaking” and there’s been a good response to Samsung’s 65-inch and 78-inch curved models at $4,299 and $7,999. One reason Dybdahl gave for the unexpected interest: Curved is “different."

LG, the only remaining company committed to plasma, hasn’t commented on its plasma plans beyond this year. John Taylor, LG’s vice president-government and public affairs, said only that “LG’s product roadmap continues to have the plasma models you're familiar with.”