Nationwide Dealers Seeking Replacements for Lost Pioneer TV Sales

With the field of plasma suppliers narrowing -- Hitachi also is exiting the business this year to focus on LCD -- some dealers said the die may be cast for the future of flat- panel TVs. While Mike Decker, Nationwide senior vice president for electronics marketing, expects plasma sales to remain flat through 2012, some group members said they may throw their full support behind LCD.

Many dealers who lauded Pioneer for its plasma image quality expressed doubts about getting equal performance from the last remaining plasma manufacturers. “The price wars have been won by LCDs and as they get bigger at an affordable price, we're probably going to replace the plasma we carry,” said Ron Kew, president of Solutions Home Entertainment, Hot Springs, Ark., which sold Pioneer plasma for four years. “Pioneer’s decision is going to kill our plasma sales and the only alternative might be Panasonic, but they're more for the big box stores. I don’t think it ever registered how good of a plasma TV” Pioneer made, he said. “We haven’t had as good a luck with LG as we did with Pioneer and some dealers seem to like Samsung so maybe some business might go there.” LG spokesman John Taylor told Consumer Electronics Daily that “many dealers do very well by LG plasma because it’s a premium product.” From the standpoint of image quality and other features, LG is willing to put its plasma TVs “head to head” against any other manufacturer in the world, Taylor said.

With LCDs moving to lower prices in larger sizes that were once safe havens for plasma TVs, the technology may have to reposition itself. It also will face competition at the high-end from Mitsubishi’s LaserVue sets and Toshiba cell processor-based models (CED Jan 8 p1), DSI Systems CEO David Robison said. “As LCDs become more mainstream in the larger sizes, can plasma be cheaper? That’s questionable,” Robison said. “If they are both the same price, the questions becomes which technology does the consumer choose and what is better for the average home.”

LG is expected to move aggressively in plasma, demonstrating a 42W 720p model at the Nationwide show that will sell for $799, dealers said. LG also showed a THX- certified 60W plasma TV as part of the new PS80 series that currently carries a $2,999 suggested retail price, but may hit $2,499 by time it ships in the spring, LG officials said.

“I've always thought that plasma had the superior picture quality and while Pioneer had some good models, LG’s TVs are looking very good,” said Jerry Calderon, president of Calderon Electronics, Del Rio, Texas. “Pioneer’s product will be another one that goes away and is replaced by a Sharp, Panasonic or other model.”

As dealers debate plasma’s future, many were experiencing tight supply of LCD TVs after posting strong unit sales in December and January, they said. The shortage of LCD TVs is expected to ease when new models ship in April, Robison said. “We have multiple holes in many of the screen sizes” available from LG, Samsung, Sony and Toshiba, Robison said.

Nationwide Group Notebook…

Epson and Atlantic Technology’s jointly developed Ensemble HD Home Cinema System is being sold through more than 100 dealers as the companies seek to establish it as a lower cost alternative for custom install, company officials said. The HD Home Cinema System, which combines Epson projectors with Atlantic Technology speakers, was delayed several times before finally shipping in Q3 2008. It will be upgraded later this year as Epson’s new Home Cinema 6100 and 6500 front projectors replace the current 1080p model. The cradle that houses the ceiling-mounted projectors will be enlarged to accommodate the new projectors, which are slightly larger than the first model -- 17.7x14.2x5.4 inches vs. 16x12.2x4.9 inches. They are heavier at 16.1 pounds than the original 12.3-pound model. The 1080p package ($7,999) will continue to feature three 0.7-inch LCDs, an HDMI 1.3 connector, ceiling mount cradle with two 4-inch full-range drivers that deliver 70 watts. The system also has a 100- inch motorized 1.0 gain screen that is attached to left, right and center channel speakers with 4.5-inch drivers and a 1-inch titanium horn tweeter. The system has an AV controller, remote and DVD upconverting player. The 6100 ($1,999) and 6500 ($2,999) increase brightness to 1,800 and 1,600 lumens from 1,200 lumens in the earlier model. Contrast ratio was boosted to 75,000:1 (6500) and 18,000:1 (6100) from 12,000:1. The new models shipped in November and December. “More and more people that were planning to buy $20,000 systems are looking for a similar experience at a lower price point,” said Jason Palmer, marketing and channel manager for Epson’s New Ventures Division. “We're trying to get this to appeal to a broader reach of people.” As part the effort to widen the audience for the product, Epson and Atlantic will lend a demonstration unit this year to dealers for customer shows, Palmer said.

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HouseBrands Plus is pitching Nationwide dealers on a Home Solutions brand wall mount for 37- to 60-inch flat-panel TVs that will be priced 30 percent less than a similar Sanus model, President Jeff Scott said. The wall mounts will be packaged for dealers with a free HDMI cable, he said. The Home Solutions mounts and 4, 6, 9, and 12-foot cables ($12 to $16) will be limited to Nationwide dealers. “I will sell them (wall mounts) when Nationwide gets a consensus of how they want to go,” said Scott, whose company will handle sourcing of the products. “Cables are easy because they are small and cost 25 cents each to ship. But the mounts cost $5 each to get them here.”

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Specialty Electronics Nationwide (SEN) is urging its custom installers to consider including videogames consoles in home theater packages. While margins for PS3, Nintendo Wii and Microsoft’s Xbox 360 consoles are nil, installing them can add revenue from more profitable HDMI cables, remotes and surround sound. “I was literally losing $5 to $10 on every videogames console I sold, but there were a couple of reasons to do it,” SEN Membership Director Barrie McCorkle said. “If your customer is buying it as a Blu-ray player, you might be able to upgrade them from that 60 Hz or 120 Hz TV to 240 Hz and you will make cash there.” Videogames consoles also might give entre to selling a customer a surround sound processor, said McCorkle, a former co-owner of Design Audio/Video in Colorado.

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Nationwide’s Primetime show took up 200,000 square feet of space at the New Orleans Convention Center, promoters said. That’s down from 250,000 square feet at the group’s last meeting in August in Las Vegas, but up from the 150,000 square feet at its meeting a year ago in Dallas.