(Nikkei BP Group)
(No.1 High-Tech News Site in Japanese)
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| Mitsubishi Electric to Halt Output of Color PDPs
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January 12, 1999 (TOKYO) -- Mitsubishi Electric Corp. said that it will
halt production of color plasma display panels (PDPs) for an unspecified
period.
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Although demand for commercial color PDPs is increasing, Japan's PDP
market remains small, at about 100,000 panels a year. The devices are
used as display panels at train stations, airports and other locations.
According to Mitsubishi Electric, its color PDP business continues to
register losses.
The company reviewed its business after suffering a consolidated loss
of about 106 billion yen (US$950 million) in its fiscal year ended March
1998. It decided to suspend the production of the color PDP devices
as part of its strategy to stop its unprofitable businesses.
Mitsubishi Electric will concentrate on enhancing panel resolution and
brightness as well as technologies to reduce the costs of PDP manufacturing
in its development of new products.
"The company has no concrete plans to resume the PDP operation, but production
will start again after the market expands," a Mitsubishi Electric official
said.
As concerns mass production of color PDPs, makers have begun to split
into two groups. They are a group promoting mass production, which includes
NEC Corp. and Fujitsu Ltd., and the opposite group, which takes a wait-and-see
stance, including Mitsubishi, Hitachi Ltd. and Matsushita Electronics
Corp.
Related stories:
NEC Starts Full-Scale Operations at PDP Plant
Plasma Display Panels for HDTV Featured at Show
Fujitsu Develops Lower-Cost, High Resolution Wall TV Panels
(Nikkei
Electronics)
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