Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited, maker of the Panasonic brand of electronics, plans to sell the world’s largest plasma television by early next year.
Measuring 2.4 m by 1.4 m and weighing 215 kg, the 103-inch panel is bigger than a double-sized mattress and almost as heavy as an upright piano.
The world’s largest consumer electronics maker has yet to set the price but Matsushita’s 65-inch plasma TVs, its largest available now, sell for about $7,500 in Japan.
The plasma panel used in the Matsushita TV will be just one-inch larger measured diagonally than a 102-inch model developed by Samsung SDI Company Limited. The South Korean company has not launched the model commercially.
Matsushita is the world’s largest plasma TV maker competing with smaller rivals such as South Korea’s LG Electronics Inc.
As liquid crystal display (LCD) TVs encroach on the market for 40-inch TVs and above, which had previously seen as plasma TV’s turf, developing even larger-sized panels is important for plasma TV makers to remain competitive.
