SAMSUNG WILL HALT PRODUCTION of plasma TVs, its serial digital interface (SDI) division has said, shutting down production of such television sets by 30 November this year.
The news was originally hinted at in January by VP of Samsung Visual Display John Ryu. However, the company has now confirmed that the reason for the shutdown is because no one was buying them. With the rise of LED and OLED 4K TVs in the last five years or so, that's no great surprise, really.
"We plan to continue our PDP TV business until the end of this year, due to changes in market demands. We remain 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," a Samsung Electronics spokesperson told The INQUIRER.
The Samsung PNF8500 series plasma TV was the last plasma set that Samsung started shipping and was released in 2013. The firm didn't launch anymore plasma TVs during 2014, and now we know why. Whether the PNF8500 series will be discontinued in the near future remains a mystery, but we can assume that it won't stay on the shelves for much longer after Samsung's announcement today.
Samsung's decision to pull plasma TVs from its production line follows that of Panasonic, which pulled the plug on plasma TVs last year. This means that the plasma TV market has now been left in the hands of LG, which is likely to carry on production as it now has a plasma TV market monopoly.
