Hitachi aims high with forthcoming 85-inch plasma HDTV
by Darren Murph 
posted Apr 19th 2007 at 8:50AM
It looks like Hitachi is continuing to follow the go-big mantra revived by the 1TB 7K1000, as the firm is reportedly looking to crank out quite a few 85-inch plasma HDTVs over the next few years. Of course, this forthcoming beauty won't take the crown for the largest PDP out there, but it could very well achieve the metrics the sales crew is hoping for. Hitachi is looking to hit the 50-inch and over category hard, increasing overall PDP marketshare to 20-percent, and boosting its stake in the aforementioned subset to over 30-percent. Still, the company probably has a fairly good backup plan if plasma sales continue to sag, but we reckon a respectably priced behemoth such as this could definitely make up the slack if it's bringing the goods.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
ph @ Apr 19th 2007 9:05AM
How much?
tavaris @ Apr 19th 2007 9:14AM
whats a respectable price?? The Sony 70 XBR3 LCD is $33,000!?!?!?!?!
ph @ Apr 19th 2007 9:08AM
"my 56 inch is almost to big, i couldn't imagine an 85, but then again if you can afford it"
Huh?
There are lots of people with 120 inch projectors. to them 85 inch screens must seem tiny. With HD DVD and Blu-ray, you can sit at a 1:1 ratio from the screen. That is, you can sit 85 inches away from an 85 inch TV. Lots of people sit farther from their TV than that.
andy @ Apr 19th 2007 10:31AM
All of the other 70"+ TV's so far have just been press releases.
you can buy 4 50" plasmas for 6k, a computer for 1k, and matrix them together at a total of 7k. Offering a single 100" plasma for 100k is nothing more than a PR stunt. A 70" for 34k is still a joke. Let's see some sales numbers on those; in reality, they're not seriously marketed.
Packaging and handling 1 85" tv is cheaper than packaging and handling 4 50" tv's, so it costs them less to bring to market; not to mention that you only have to make one set of scaling and input electronics instead of 4.
If this TV comes in under 7k, it'll garner a market. If it comes in under 6k, you'll see them develop some market share. Still, there is no reason they can't make it for about 5k which would put some serious pressure on the big screen players like Panasonic's 58".
DerekPowell @ Apr 19th 2007 10:17PM
It's more difficult and expensive to manufacture the larger panels (esp. because they'll be made in much smaller quantities to start). Secondly it probably does cost more to package and handle 1 100" tv than 4 50" tvs. the 100" plasmas that are out now weigh over 700lbs. It's not fair or useful to compare this to 4 50" TVs. That's like saying, if a 500gb HD costs 100 dollars, then a 1tb one should cost 200.
I'll crap myself if this costs less than 7k. It'll probably be closer to 20, and some people will pay it, they pay it for high end 1080p projectors. No your average joe won't be buying it, but does your average joe even have room for an 85" plasma screen television?
When ferrari makes a car, they feel they have a market for it. It's not however, the same market that ford has.