Sharp and Sony have announced that the two companies will be ending their LCD joint venture.
Sony is selling its 7.04 percent share in Sharp Display (SDP) for 10 billion yen, or about $12.5 million, back to Sharp Display. The transaction is expected to be completed next month. Sony acquired the stake back in December of 2009 as part of an investment in Sharp Display and the company's Saikai City plant.
Originally, the two companies had planned to use the joint venture to collaborate in the production and development of large-sized LCD panels and modules. In March of this year, Sony said that due to the changing market conditions for LCD panels, it would not make any further investments, which resulted in an agreement to sell its stake to Sharp.
Both Sony and Sharp said that the transaction will not have any material impact on their financial forecast.
Plasma screens have much better black levels than LCD or LED. Also, every screen has fantastic refresh rate, and each pixel has its own light source, meaning greater contrast ratios. (This is referring to actual contrast ratios, not "dynamic" contrast ratios. Dynamic contrast ratios are measured by turning the back-lighting off, which isn't possible while watching a movie of course. And for those who say, "Hey, what about local dimming?" I checked a month ago to find that every single LCD TV sold at the Best Buy near my home used edge-lighting, meaning local dimming is impossible.) And lastly, can you really tell from across the room that your TV sticks 3" out from the wall instead of 1.5"? Complaining about plasma TV's thickness is absurd.
And, for your information, LED TVs are still LCD. They just use LEDs for back-lighting instead of fluorescent tubes. LCD isn't old technology since it is incorporated in every LED TV. Unfortunately, most LCD TVs that make it into the consumers homes have very poor refresh rates.
However, you're right in that LCD will be old technology once OLED is available and cheap: with OLED, the colors are fantastic, each pixel produces it's own back-light (good for contrast ratios), they are improving the longevity of the OLED color balance, and when the manufacturers are finally tooled up, it will be cheaper to manufacture than LCD. Hooray for the future!
You've got it totally wrong! it is Sharp that is giving up and going to fall hard, not Sony.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-10/sharp-widens-loss-forecast-to-4-7-billion-on-slumping-tv-sales.html