Despite some critics decrying that “plasma is dead”, Samsung has said that plasma technology will remain with us until at least 2020.
Speaking at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Bong-Ku Kang, Samsung’s senior vice president of the company’s marketing group, said that while it is limited in terms of the amounts of units it can produce due to the number of factories it owns, the technology is much more cost effective than other technologies.
“We will continue the PDP (Plasma Display Panel) business for more than 10 years because PDP production costs are getting cheaper to make for the customer”, Kang said.
LCD technology has changed in recent years with the addition of LED backlighting, but Kang said any improvements won’t harm plasma’s viability.
“Even though LED and LCD pricing keep falling down, PDP is more competitive in big-screen sizes,” he said.
Samsung announced its 2011 range at the show, which it is calling Plasma+1, featuring an extra inch across all sizes on the equivalent models from last year. These will include 43-, 51-, 59- and 61-inch displays.
Features of the new models include web-browsing, 3D support and Samsung apps, with pricing and availability to be announced.
Ty Pendlebury flew to Las Vegas as a guest of Samsung