Sony Stops Tube TV Production

Bravia

March 4 2008

My, my, how times and technology have changed.

Do you remember when TV’s first came out?. Ok neither do I. But my point here is that technology has advanced so much that the days of the standard “Cathode Ray Tube” TV’s are almost at an end.

Top officials in the industry are saying that tube televisions will be gone within a year in Japan as a result of the growing demand for flat panel TV’s.

Soon after this revelation Sony made the announcement that by the end of the month they will no longer produce tube TV’s. Now this isn’t really a surprise as Sony had already ceased production of tube televisions in Japan in 2004 but continued to produce them at their plants in Singapore and Malaysia under the “Trinitron” name because there was still some demand for them in Latin America and various parts of Asia.

Sony has sold almost 300 million cathode ray tube TV’s since there inception in 1965 although things didn’t really take off for them until 1968 when Sony introduced the first Trinitron model.

At the pinnacle of their success Sony’s production for tube TV’s and computer monitors was in excess of 20 million units a year in 2000. Their production up to the end of this month is expected to be 40% less than last year.

Flat Panel Takes Over

It’s not all doom and gloom though with shipments of their flat panel TV’s to be more that 10 million it’s safe to say that the flat panel market is booming which is great for Sony but the flip side is that prices drop (which is great for us), Sony though is on top of their game and last week announced a Joint Venture with Sharp to make flat panel TV’s.

Sony also has a Joint Venture in place with Samsung to produce flat panels. They say the latest JV with Sharp will not affect their relationship with Samsung and things will continue as normal. I should point out that Sony doesn’t make flat panels themselves.

Another reason for the decline of the picture tube TV is that broadcasting is now switching from standard analog to the new digital age that we are in now. Digital makes it possible for the consumer to receive programming in high definition (HD).

Booming Economies

With the Summer Olympics coming up in Beijing the economy in China is just booming as a result consumers are snapping up all the latest electronic products and flat panel TVs are at the top of the list.

China isn’t the only growing economy right now either, India is also booming with a growing middle class. Toshiba although recently losing the battle for HD-DVD supremacy have shifted their focus to producing more flat panel TVs also, stating that they expect sales to increase to 7.60 million units by 2012 compared to 5.77 million units in 2007.

It is estimated that television sales worldwide will increase from about 185 million to 236 million units with over 75% of these being flat panel TVs.

So even though Sony doesn’t make the TVs themselves you can see (by the numbers) why they are in on the market.