According to the Nikkei business daily that was reported on July 10, 2008, Japanese companies are teaming up to develop next generation OLED displays. The companies include Sony, Toshiba, Panasonic (Matsushita), Sharp, Idemitsu Kosan, Sumitomo Chemical, Dainippon Screen, Shimadzu, and Hitachi Zosen. The Japanese government is also involved in increasing the size and decrease the [...]

Panasonic TH-50PZ850U Specifications
Display: 50″ Plasma
Aspect Ratio: 16:9
Pixel Format: 1920 x 1080
Contrast Ratio: 30,000:1
Connectivity: Viera Cast (Internet connection to Youtube, Picassa, weather, news), HDMI (4, 1080/24p compatible), Component, VGA
Storage: SD
Color Gamut: Digital Cinema Color Re-Mastering (red and green stretched beyond HDTV color space to reproduce film-level colors)
Video Support: H.264 HD, 1:1 Pixel Mapping
Picture Support:
Price: US$3500

“Mirror mirror [...]

Panasonic, the major consumer electronics brand of Matsushita, is planning to mass produce 37″ OLED TVs within the next three years. If Panasonic is successful, the 37″ OLED TV would be the largest OLED TV in production, by a big margin. Sony introduced its OLED TV, the XEL-1, late last year but it is a [...]

Panasonic LB80 Series
Models:
4:3 Aspect Ratio: PT-LB80NTU, PT-LB80U, PT-LB75NTU, PT-LB75U
16:10 Aspect Ratio: PT-LW80NTU
Brightness:
2600 Lumens: PT-LB75NTU, PT-LB75U, PT-LW80NTU
3200 Lumens: PT-LB80NTU, PT-LB80U
Contrast Ratio: 500:1
Pixel Format:
1024 x 768: PT-LB80NTU, PT-LB80U, PT-LB75NTU, PT-LB75U
1280 x 800: PT-LW80NTU
Projected Image Size: 33″ to 300″
Other: Built-in mono speaker
WiFi (802.11b/g): PT-LB80NTU, PT-LB75NTU, PT-LW80NTU
Dimension: 368 x 88 x 233
Weight: 2.96kg (<7lbs)
Price: PT-LW80NTU $3,499, PT-LB80NTU $3,299, PT-LB80U [...]

Panasonic Viera PZ850 Series
Size: 46″ (TH-46PZ850), 50″ (TH-50PZ850), 58″ (TH-58PZ850), 65″ (TH-65PZ850)
Aspect Ratio: 16:9
Pixel Format: 1920 x 1080
Response Time:
Contrast Ratio: 30,000:1 (native), 1,000,000:1 (dynamic)
Lifetime: 100,000 hours (to half brightness)
Input: HDMI (4), VGA
Other: Viera Cast (direct access to YouTube, Picasa, Bloomberg, etc.), No lead or mercury.
Availability: June (46″, 50″), September (58″, 65″)
Price: $3100 (46″), $3500 (50″), [...]

Plasma display panel (PDP) unit shipments in Q1′08 were down Q/Q but up 53% Y/Y to 3.5 million units according to DisplaySearch. Some of the highlights from DisplaySearch were that 32″ PDPs share of unit shipments increased from 11% to 15%. Bear in mind that these 32″ PDPs are nowhere near 1080p (where LCD technology [...]

Matsushita announced FY2008 results on April 28, 2008. Matsushita is a huge company in a variety of markets but I will focus on display-related results from April 1, 2007 to March 31, 2008.
The company began operation of its fourth domestic PDP plant in June 2007 and start constructing its fifth in November 2007. In [...]

Panasonic BT-LH1760
Size: 17″
Aspect Ratio: 15:9
Pixel Format: 1280 x 768
Frequency: 120Hz
Panel Technology: In-Plane Switching (IPS)
Viewing Angle: 176/176
Image Processing: 10-bit, 3D LUT
Input: DVI-D, HD-SDI/SDI, Component (Y/Pb/Pr), RGB, PC RGB
Availability: April 2008
Pricing: MSRP $4500

During the NAB 2008 conference, Panasonic introduced the BT-LH1760 production LCD monitor. Although the size is diminutive compared to regular LCD monitors that have been [...]

Update 2008.04.04
Engadget is reporting the press release by AbleComm regarding Panasonic’s compact plasma display was completely false, unfortunately. Copied here is PRNewswire’s retraction.

PRNewswire — April 3, 2008
We are advised by AbleComm, Inc. that journalists and other readers should disregard the news release, Panasonic To Put Plasma Video Displays in Cell Phones, issued earlier today over [...]

On February 15, 2008, Hitachi and Matsushita Electric Industrial announced an alliance reached on December 25, 2007 by Hitachi, Matsushita, and Canon. Under the terms of this agreement, Matsushita will acquire a 24.9% stake in Hitachi Displays, which is a wholly owned Hitachi subsidiary that makes small/medium LCD panels, from Hitachi by March 31, 2008. [...]