First at the global level but on the French market

Panasonic wants to believe. The Group yesterday presented its new 3D TVs, which the first will be marketed late April in France: a plasma screen of 50 inches, sold 2,500 euros and comes with two pairs of glasses for vision in relief. The Japanese manufacturer put large with this technology. First at the global level, but on the French market. "Our goal this year 40 of market share in value on the segment of France 3D televisions, approximately four times more than our current market share." "3D is an historic opportunity for Panasonic, we will not pass side," judge Laurent Roussel, President of Panasonic France. First encouraging sign, the launch in the US, end of March, has exceeded expectations: the products are out of stock at Best Buy stores.

Simple mechanical turnover In support of its forecast, the Japanese highlights its positioning on plasma technology, based on the excitation of gas. Compared to LCD (liquid crystal), the plasma is often associated by specialists a better image quality. Its main assets: brightness, angle of vision, but also, and above all, response time (speed at which a pixel changes color), which will be particularly crucial with 3D and is of the order of 0.001 thousandth of a second on the plasma.

Last resort in Korean

This new market is a little the last chance for Panasonic, who is currently facing, like Sony, Philips and Sharp, to the blows of battering of two Koreans, Samsung, the world leader, which will be released its 3D models in the mid-April in France, and LG, which has received in 2009 the growth of sales of the global market, and which TVs are expected in may in the hexagon. Yesterday, LG also said in a statement, its intention to capture 25 of sales of televisions 3D this year at the global level, flowing nearly 1 million of 3D televisions.

A more narrow niche

In fact, Samsung and LG imposed the LCD on the market, enclosing the plasma in a more narrow niche. A movement succeeded with a very aggressive price policy: the average price of an LCD TV is 524 EUR (declining by 22 over a year), cheaper than plasma (747 euros). Also, the LCD has benefited from strong technological advances with the appearance of the LED, light emitting diode lighting, when he fully lined the screen, offering a very powerful image quality.

Result, plasma represents that 7.9 of the sales of the French market, according to figures from GFK, with 534.000 televisions, a figure down continues for several years: he represented 20.2 per cent of sales in 2005! The decline is greater in value, since plasma weighs more than 11.4 of the income of the market in 2009 (447 million euros), compared with 38.7 per cent five years ago!

To pursue, Panasonic put its technology, but also on distribution - negotiated various exclusive presentations in specialty stores such as Darty - and on the communication. Television, press and display will be thus campaign soon, while the Group should announce projections in 3D for the tournament of Roland-Garros tennis, next May. Japanese is also on the world of football, in June, to take off its sales of 3D televisions. And it will also leave LCD displays adapted to the terrain in September.