Pioneer's last chance - musings between final exams

[GlennMaples]

With an incredible oversupply of manufacturing facilities, a very small market share despite having some of the best product on the market, and little sign of traction I honestly believe that Pioneer is near a make or break point in their plasma business.

It seems to me that Pioneer's best hope to establish a firm market mind share lies in their ability to leverage their 50" 1080p this year. Next year, we will see most "first line' plasmas moving to 1080 (whether it is really that much and improvement or not) but this year Pioneer has all the chips.

If I were Pioneer I would set the selling price for the 1080P 50 inch at no more that 4299 and market the bajeebers out of "having the only true Hi Def." Any more than 4300 or so and they will price themselves out of the market for the non-hard core AVSers.

The good news is that with the Pioneer at $4299, Panasonic and the rest will have to lower their MSRP by quite a bit. I think prices are about to fall through the floor this year, but I'm still reasonably happy I got my plasma this week.

My last exam is in 17 minutes, guess I'd better go--hate to disappointing the kiddies :-)
-glenn

[dvdmonster]

I like your dreamworld! :D

[QUADHD]

you better wake up and get real if your gonna make that exam in 17 minutes.

[dvdmonster]

Hehe.. yeah, it's pretty brave hanging around avsforum 17 mins before an exam.. heck, I'm a med student and I'm allmost shitting my pants sitting in here 1½ months before my exams. :p

[GlennMaples]

Now i know that y'all think I've been smoking the wrong stuff (and my students sometimes must wonder about that as well), but consider what releasing a 50" 1080P at $5000 or higher does for Pioneer's market share.

Not much. Especially when very good 50" panels are available at a little more than half of that price.

I think a 25% price differential for the really cool technology is a pretty appealing offer though. Even to the non-AVSer. And in fact, doesn't this almost sound like what Panasonic has been doing to pioneer over the last couple of years?


-glenn

[billybob_jcv]

Does anyone *really* know what Pioneer does in their factories? How much contract manufacturing do they do, and for whom? There is a reason all the majors are currently scrambling to get more manufacturing capacity on-line. You don't sink hundreds of millions of capital dollars into expanding capacity unless you believe the demand will be there. The question is whether they are all correct. Don't forget the commercial market - businesses of all types are buying multiple flat panels for use in retail, corporate, education, etc. The market is not all just Costco & Bestbuy! :)

[GlennMaples]

The fairly authorative word elsewhere in this forum said that Pioneer had essentially four lines but ahd moved production to the NEC lines and was allowing thier orignal lines to lay fallow. Surely Sony not continuing their relationship has added to their overcapacity. Whether any of these line are suitable for 1080P production is another question I guess.

[gotchaforce]

what i dont get is how theyre going to compete with the $10000 price point when a 65" 1080p panny is gonna go for the same price.. unless its a diehard "pioneer elite or nothing" fan, most people dont say "SMALLER is better" when it comes to TVs