For some time, PDP-TV has been struggling to maintain a 10% share of the large-screen flat-screen TV market. This constitutes a marketing failure of gigantic proportions, with a significant share of the ineptitude belonging to market leader Panasonic.

Ken Werner
Senior Analyst and Editor

You don’t have to have gray hair to remember when plasma was the only feasible direct-view large-screen TV technology, and plasma’s brand recognition was such that even when large-screen LCD entered the market, many consumers still called any large flat-panel TV a "plasma TV." But plasma manufacturers managed to squander the high regard in which they had been held, despite having an arguably better technology and price advantages. They steadily gave away market share to LCD, with the share stabilizing at about 10%. Until this year.

In July, year-to-date sales of PDP-TVs were up 70% over the same period in 2009, according NPD’s U.S. retail weekly tracking service, while sales for LCD-TVs were flat. This means all the US growth in HDTV sales in the last year can be attributed to plasma, a stark contrast to previous years.

Displaybank reported that global PDP module shipments for Q2′10 reached a record 5M units, an increase of 27% over the preceding quarter and 53% over Q2′09. Revenues were $1.48B, up 25% over the preceding quarter. Shipments of 50-inch PDP modules exceeded 2M units world-wide in Q2.

In Q2, Panasonic had the leading PDP module market share with 41% (2M units), followed by Samsung SDI (32% and 1.62M units), and LGE (23% and 1.15M units). Serious PDP production is now under way in mainland China, with Sichuan COC Display Devices Company accounting for 4% of global shipments. That may not sound like much, but it’s a significant increase over 3% in Q1′10 and 1% in Q4′09. The only other player of note is Orion PDP, which accounts for about 0.1%of the market with its line of nearly seamless tiled modules for signage and PIDs.

Why the boom in PDP-TV? Plasma technology is well suited to 3D-TV, and Panasonic, in particular, has been aggressively promoting that synergy. But 3D-TV shipments are not yet large enough to account for the surge. So what is it? It seems that, finally, consumers are paying attention to PDP’s price advantage, and that advantage has been increased by mis-steps from LCD-TV manufacturers.

Ken Park, Senior Manager of DisplaySearch’s Korean FPD Market and Technology Research unit, feels that LCD-TV manufacturers have effectively devalued their own CCFL-backlit TVs by the way in which they have positioned their LED-lit TVs as premium products with (allegedly) better picture quality, stylishly thin cabinets, and enhanced feature sets. At the same time, they have overpriced the LED sets. So, the CCFL-lit LCD sets are devalued in the eyes of consumers and the LED sets are overpriced, which opens a large hole in the competitive landscape that PDP-TV makers are successfully exploiting.

Part of the high price of LED-lit LCD-TVs is due to inadequate LED supplies. As the supply chain catches up and LCD panel prices drop, will PDP be able to maintain its perceived cost-benefit advantage? Displaybank’s Jusy Hong says, "while LCD-TV panel price declining trend is expected continue until next month and either slightly increase or maintain from September, PDP module price is expected to continuously go down during the second-half of 2010."

What happens after that? Does plasma get its mojo back? Does it slip back into being a 10-percent player? Or can it ride the 3D wave to something in between? We’ll be watching. In the meantime, it’s good to see plasma getting some of the respect from consumers it has long deserved.