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Matsushita to Have Digital-TV Sets
Available for Sale in U.S. This Week
By EVAN RAMSTAD
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
After decades of development and competitive tumult, the first digital-television sets will appear for sale in U.S. electronics stores this week.
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co.'s North American subsidiary just started shipping its Panasonic-branded model with a 56-inch, high-definition, cinema-style wide screen, from its factory in Tijuana, Mexico. Despite limited quantities at first, retailers are throwing together promotional events that spotlight the arrival of the sets, which they can sell for $5,500 to $6,000.
Though Panasonic is the first to get a digital TV out of the lab and the factory, the set by itself can't pick up the digital signals that stations will begin to transmit in November. The company is selling a digital receiver, or "set-top box", separately. The first will go on sale in October, with an expected price between $1,400 and $1,700.
But the Panasonic set does receive normal, or analog, TV signals and improves their clarity for the high-resolution screen. "This is really the ultimate analog TV as well," said Bill Mannion, who leads the TV division of Panasonic Consumer Electronics Co.
Many TV makers decided to separate the screen from the receiver in digital TVs, similar to the way a monitor is sold apart from a computer. The strategy means that, with some TV stations likely to wait several years to transmit digital signals, consumers can buy the improved screen first and get the receiver when enough stations in their area have gone digital. In addition, TV manufacturers can improve the receivers without having to redesign the display each time.
Most other manufacturers have said they will roll out digital TVs this fall, but none has given a firm shipping date.
By November, Panasonic also intends to sell a $1,700, 32-inch model and a $3,000, 36-inch model. Both will be traditional, tube-based TVs, while the 56-inch model is a projection system.
Manufacturers and retailers forecast sales of only 10,000 or so digital TVs by the end of the year, a tiny drop among the 23 million TVs U.S. consumers will buy this year. However, industry executives are counting on digital TVs eventually to restore profitability to their businesses. And, in many cities, retailers are scrambling to lay claim to being the first to sell them.
Dow Stereo/Video Inc., a closely held nine-store chain in San Diego, took advantage of its proximity to Panasonic's factory to buy one of the first truckloads. It plans a launch event with a set giveaway Thursday at its flagship store. "We think we will sell 25 to 30 sets that day," said Thomas Campbell, a Dow Stereo/Video director. Because San Diego TV stations won't start digital broadcasts until next year, the store will demonstrate a high-definition satellite-program service by Unity Motion, a closely held St. Louis firm.
Mainly because of their size, national chains will roll out digital TVs a bit more slowly. Best Buy Co. plans a promotion for the Panasonic digital TV Wednesday night at its flagship store near Minneapolis. However, the company won't start selling the TV until a few weeks from now and will concentrate first on the 10 big cities getting the first digital broadcasts.
In Denver, Sandor Hasznos ordered one of the TV sets at an Ultimate Electronics Inc. store where a prototype was shown Saturday. The store promised delivery this week, though Denver TV stations won't turn digital until next year. Mr. Hasznos, who owns a software company, said he often buys computers and software when they are first available. "When you try something in raw form, you get the unmitigated view of what it's really like," he said. But he added, for digital TV "there's a certain novelty value. My kids are pretty excited." |
