Panasonic halted its plasma television production late last year and today we've learned that Samsung is doing the same. According to a report from Reuters, Samsung said it will be shutting down its plasma panel production business by November 30.
The Korean tech giant cited a decline in overall demand for plasma televisions as the contributing factor to the decision.
The fact that Samsung is winding down its plasma panel production isn't a huge surprise. As CNET points out, Samsung Visual Diplay R&D Vice President John Ryu hinted at the move back in January. At the time, he told the publication that he didn't think plasma televisions had a future beyond 2014 for a couple of different reasons.
For one, plasma panels are more expensive to manufacture than LED LCD panels. But perhaps more importantly - and the reason that Panasonic pulled out last year - is the difficulty involved in making a cost-effective 4K plasma panel.
With Panasonic and Samsung out, LG is left as the only major supplier of plasma panels. According to a separate report from Yonhap News Agency, however, South Korea's second largest technology company is also planning to phase out plasma panel production in the near future.
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