Sony says it will stop manufacturing rear-projection TVs stating the business is just not profitable enough anymore. Sony joins Hitachi and and Seiko to become the third major electronics company to back out of the rear-projection TV business.
Stealing market share from rear-projection TV sales is liquid-crystal-display TVs which are making big and bulky rear-projection TVs look downright antiquated. Sony says rear-projection TV sales plummet by 50 percent in 2007 compared to 2006. Growing 50 percent in sales, within roughly the same time period are sales of LCD TVs, Sony reports. Sony says it will stop production of rear-projection TVs in February.
Eliminating rear-projection production and sales could have a significant impact on future Sony products. Sony has openly said that it will be putting focus on the existing LCD and plasma technology, as well as looking towards the future, which is OLED displays .
Being able to focus all research and development as well as production on flat-panels has the potential added benefit of dropping costs of the current flat panels.
Never having to carry a heavy rear-projection TV while moving is something that everyone can smile about. Now bring on the OLED, my new LCD is just looking for a reason to become obsolete.
As the owner of a Sony rear projection set, I'm not happy with the change. Rear-projection sets never suffer from burn-in (or, in the LCD world, image retention). They're also greener, using less electricity.
Lincoln
I'm not sure how long it has been since the author has looked at rear projection but they are not heavy. My 56" Samsung DLP is 69 lbs but the 57" LCD was 112 lbs. It is true that CRT based rear projection were heavy but I don't know if those are even made anymore. Also my DLP is only 14 inches deep which is almost the same depth as the base of the 57" LCD I was comparing it to. If you wall mount it then sure the LCDs are thinner but living in an apartment that means putting big holes in the wall and also trying to hide the cables. Odds are you are probably going to have some kind of stand for your DVD player / video games etc so why not stick the TV on top of that. Also lets not forget that my 56" DLP cost $1500 and the 57" LCD was going for around $7500. If you are partial to LCDs thats fine with me but there are lots of good reasons to get rear projection.
Hey LincolnSpector,
Check your facts, you have them backwards. Do a simple Google search for "rear projection burn in." Also, Flat-panel LCD and RPTV consume about the same amount of power.