Pioneer's ninth-gen Kuros to mark end of deep blacks

Philip Wong | Mar 07, 2008

It may be the end of the road for the Pioneer-made Kuro. That said, the Japanese is still on track to launch its ninth-generation Kuros before it halts in-house panel production. Bowing to growing market pressure, the staunch plasma supporter is also ready to launch its own range of Sharp-supplied and Pioneer-customized LCD TVs. These are slated for release in the European market this fall. Furthermore, both companies have entered into a collaboration for Blu-ray-related business. This will encompass end-consumer product design, as well as underlying hardware components. Finally, to turn around its home electronics business, plans are in place to expand its display-related network/wireless audio-visual, Blu-ray and professional sound-visual products.

Though we were surprised with the sudden turn of events, this was not unexpected taking into consideration its recent push for a premium proposition. This may have further alienated Pioneer from value-conscious consumers and strained its market share in an extremely competitive flat-panel TV market increasingly dominated by LCD TVs. While performance definitely matters, it seems like affordability is still high on consumers' priority--a sad but true reality of commoditization.

Filed under: Home AV
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