27/03/2009 Pioneer Plasma: worth a premium price?
Tagged under Home Theatre, Kuro., Pioneer, Plasma
Posted by Len | 10 Comments
The recent decision from Pioneer to exit the Plasma market says a lot about this industry. The Pioneer Kuro range of screens was universally hailed as being the worlds best flat panel TV: ever. Yet for Pioneer Plasma was a money burning exercise, and finally they have decided that they can no longer afford to finance the category.
Pioneer screens have won their category in the Australian Sound and Image awards – five years running. I don’t think I have ever seen an awards category any where in the world which included one of the Pioneer screens where the Pioneer has not won hands down. So how does the product which has become the darling of reviewers, dealers and a considerable portion of the public manage to lose so much money?
The reason could be nothing more than ego. Pioneer comes from a culture where market share is of upmost importance, and products are priced to maximize market share, at all cost. This seems to be an oddity in this industry. Does Mercedes Benz expect to knock off the Commodore in terms of market share? They could if they wanted to, all they need to do is price their cars cheaply enough and it will happen. They too would lose money, and they too would one day realise that they could not afford the losses, and exit the car market. So why did Pioneer feel that it was so important that their screens had to be priced so closely to the lesser competition? (theirs was a unique situation where they had no direct competition in terms of quality).
Were they afraid that if they placed too much of a premium price on the product the public would not pay it? I doubt this. Pioneer was our largest account last year, based almost entirely on their limited range of premium screens. To put his into perspective Len Wallis Audio is better known as an audio and custom installation company than for our TV offerings.
Every industry has a premium product offering, which is priced well above the ‘average’ asking price in that industry, and in each case these premium categories appear to flourish.
At one stage Pioneers premium 50″ screen was priced with 10% of the equivalent sized Panasonic. I don’t want to take anything away from the Panasonic; it is an excellent, and very well priced, screen. However the Pioneer is a premium product, and worth much more than the 10% premium being asked. This is the A/V equivalent of Mercedes repositioning their ‘C’ Class to within 10% of the price of a Commodore. While this may be a very appealing offer for the consumer, it would spell disaster for Mercedes Benz.
So where does this leave this industry, or more importantly, our consumer base. Simply put it leaves us without a premium offering – at any price. The Pioneer Kuro range – which will disappear around the middle of this year, is simply the best of its class. Those who demand the best, and are willing to pay a premium for it, will no longer have this option.
10 Comments
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Adam says...
No better? Surely you’ve seen Metz, Loewe, Runco and Vidikron panels? Metz in particular……wow!
Posted on April 3, 2009 at 8:38 am
Michael says...
i have a Pioneer , purchased a couple of years ago. Everyone who visits our home and sees it always comments on “this is the best we have ever seen”. I have never seen anything as good in a flat screen. It is a shame they are exiting
Posted on April 27, 2009 at 4:21 pm
laurie says...
Michael
Spot on until you see one properly setup in the home you haven’t seen nothing yet and once its been calibrated better still
Posted on April 28, 2009 at 12:20 am
ken says...
Bad news for Pioneer, good news for those looking for a top quality TV…or will there be no run out sale on these?
If I had the money I’d buy one in a heartbeat. Even the Plasma I bought for the mother-in-law from Pioneer excels in its class
Posted on April 28, 2009 at 10:16 pm
Len says...
The bad news is that the stock coming into the country is unlikely to meet demand. We are already in an oversold position on the 60″, and have been told that we will only receive a further 12 of the 50″, most of which have already been sold.
Posted on April 28, 2009 at 10:20 pm
TruBlack says...
My sister has an LX509A. At first viewing, I could not believe how much shadow detail comes through. The colours are just so beautiful! I think I was concentrating more in viewing the screen than following the movie dialogue. My eyes just oogled at the images around the screen during the whole movie. In a dark room, the black levels are just BLACK!. You have to see it to believe it. I envy those with the huge 60″ screen. I want one!
Posted on May 5, 2009 at 12:02 am
Richard says...
Laurie
How do you go about getting the TV calibrated?
Posted on May 15, 2009 at 9:55 am
bryan catmull says...
from my observations the KURO was always a bit dull lacking punch, due to the heavy filtering to achieve the black level, and this was in a home theatre setting, the new panasonic low power models now coming out, are the result of panasonic taking all the pioneer engineers onto the payroll, these new models together with the new samsung range look great, from a personal view, the images are much brighter while still having the black levels like the kuro
Posted on June 12, 2009 at 12:51 pm
Colin says...
I have had a Pioneer Plasma screen since they were first introduced into Australia.
I payed an “arm and a leg” then for the 50 inch model.
When the 60 inch came out I bought it and now use the 50 inch in my office.
The picture quality is superb and I spend a lot of time watching DVDs.
My neighbours cant beleave how good it looks but they can’t beleave how much I’ve pay “just to watch TV”.
I’m disappointed that Pioneer can’t make a financial go of it, but when thy disappear into the sunset I’ will be looking at the Panasonic in future – Perhaps even the really big one (if my wall can hndle the weight.
Well done Pioneer!
Posted on July 9, 2009 at 1:36 pm
Reno Russo says...
We’ve had a Pioneer 50 inch for quite some time and it was the clincher in selling our house – the TV was included. The picture has to be seen to be believed – especially from our (high end) blu-ray. Oh well – let’s hope we can find something close soon.
Posted on August 4, 2009 at 3:15 pm