What does this mean? I was considering buying the KDS50A3000 in about 6 months when I move to a bigger place; should this change my plans? As in, buy now instead? Also, a bit weird that Sony would decide to go with one technology only for the meantime. Oh well.
With the price of LCD and plasma dropping so much in the last year and expected to drop further in the coming year, I can't see DLP having much of a life going forward. It's crazy. Three years ago, my friend bought a 42" Sharp Aquos for $6500. Right now, you can buy the same TV for less than $1500. I bought my 57" 1080i for $1500 two years ago. I will probably be buying a new 42" LCD in another year or so. When I was a kid, we had the same TV for 15 years.
Sony announced that what is left in their inventory of rear projection will be it. The profit in rear pro is almost all gone. If you look where we were selling a 60" SXRD last year for 3000-3300, this year they have been from 1600-1900. Most customers that come into the store now days are looking for flat anyway. The only problem that I have with them dropping the rear pro is that I was waiting for the new 70" and now it will never make it to market. I am now having the Pioneer 60" plasma sent to my house instead. Sony has left a gap out there right now, unless you are going to jump to their 70" lcd panel or do a front projection system the largest you are going to get is a 52" from them.
Actually Sony isn't the first to abandon RPTV. The did have the biggest announcement about it though.
Does that mean Samsung will follow suit with their DLP sets? Or, will their DLP's fill the void left by Sony? I do notice a lot more advertisements these days from both manufacturers for their LCD sets. Harlan- how are the larger LCD's these days on fast-action/ sports programming?
Samsung was the first to enter the DLP market and they will likely be the last to leave it. This has been a big money maker for them, and it was a huge contributer towards them becoming recognized as a leading TV manufacturer. Without the DLP, Samsung wouldn't be much different than RCA or Magnavox in the home theater business. Samsung is now doing very well with their LCD and PDP sales, but I doubt they give up the DLP until it's no longer profitable. They are still working on ways to improve the DLP sets (LED backlight, 120Hz, etc) which I doubt they would waste resources on if they are about to jump ship.
