Panasonic Targets 50% of Japan’s 3-D TV Market by March 2011

Panasonic Corp., the world’s largest maker of plasma televisions, aims to win half of Japan’s market for 3-D televisions next fiscal year, an executive said.

“About 10 percent of large-screen TVs, measuring 37 inches or bigger, will probably be 3-D TVs in 2010, so that’s about 500,000 units to be sold here,” Shiro Nishiguchi, an executive officer for Panasonic’s marketing of audio-visual products, said in an interview yesterday. “We’re aiming to get a 50 percent share of the market since we’ll be ahead of our rivals in introducing this technology.”

The maker of Viera TVs is competing with Sony Corp. and Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s biggest TV maker, to win customers with the new technology. Sony plans to start selling 9 models of 3-D Bravia TVs from this summer. Sales of 3-D TVs may reach 50 million units in 2012, including 10 million 3-D-ready plasma TVs, Morgan Stanley said in a Nov. 25 report.

Osaka-based Panasonic will start selling two 3-D plasma TV models in Japan in April, with 50-inches and 54-inches screens, for around 430,000 yen ($4,800) and 530,000 yen respectively, the company said yesterday. The company, which will also offer similar products in the U.S. from March, expects to sell as many as one million 3-D TVs globally in the year starting April 1, the company said on Jan. 8.

Panasonic has started development of camcorders that can film 3-D images, Nishiguchi said. The company may consider making 3-D TVs with liquid-crystal displays in future when there’ll be a broad base of 3-D content, he said.

The shift by TV makers toward 3-D is prompting Japanese broadcast stations to start new services. Tokyo-based SKY Perfect JSAT Holdings Inc. will offer 3-D programs, starting with at least two from this summer, the company said Jan. 27. Its rival Nippon BS Broadcasting Corp., partly owned by Bic Camera Inc., offers three 3-D programs.

By Mariko Yasu and Maki Shiraki, BusinessWeek