The biggest problem of high quality TVs like Plasma (Panasonic, Pioneer, Sharp) is declining sales in bigger markets like US.
In US there is only one chain where you can demo such high end TVs. Actually it is not even in the whole chain, but selected stores of a chain. Even they too are shutting down that section in favor of mass electonic products.
If you do not have a place to demo how will people know if something is better. I have never realised that there is so much difference between high end tvs and regular ones until couple of years ago. I did not know all the audio brands too, I was not a av afficianado.
Problem in US is that not only high end TVs but even high end audio is facing issues. I was talking to a guy from a famous speaker company, he did admit that for a regular person on street Bose is best, most people have never heard of brands like B&W, Martin Logan, Def Tech, KEF, Klipsch, etc in US. The numbers are rapidly reducing. If they cannot sell more quantity they can never recoup the cost of R&D, to keep new technology and costs low, volume has to be there.
Unless some company like Apple gets into retailing these products, they are gonna die out soon. Whether it is a high end plasma TV or a high end speaker maker, the future looks bleak. This is in US. Europe is also facing same conundrum.
When developed markets are having hard time, the low volume sales in India would not help the division to stay afloat.
In US there is only one chain where you can demo such high end TVs. Actually it is not even in the whole chain, but selected stores of a chain. Even they too are shutting down that section in favor of mass electonic products.
If you do not have a place to demo how will people know if something is better. I have never realised that there is so much difference between high end tvs and regular ones until couple of years ago. I did not know all the audio brands too, I was not a av afficianado.
Problem in US is that not only high end TVs but even high end audio is facing issues. I was talking to a guy from a famous speaker company, he did admit that for a regular person on street Bose is best, most people have never heard of brands like B&W, Martin Logan, Def Tech, KEF, Klipsch, etc in US. The numbers are rapidly reducing. If they cannot sell more quantity they can never recoup the cost of R&D, to keep new technology and costs low, volume has to be there.
Unless some company like Apple gets into retailing these products, they are gonna die out soon. Whether it is a high end plasma TV or a high end speaker maker, the future looks bleak. This is in US. Europe is also facing same conundrum.
When developed markets are having hard time, the low volume sales in India would not help the division to stay afloat.
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