Panasonic’s Vice President of the TV division confirms to The Verge that Panasonic has ceased plasma development. Sales will continue into 2014 at the very least but OLED is the future for Panasonic.

Panasonic confirms exit from plasma TVs
The first rumors about Panasonic's exit from plasma TVs surfaced in December 2012 and in March 2013 it was reported that plasma developement has stopped.

Panasonic Display Vice President Kiyoshi Okamoto now confirms the rumors. He says that plasma development has stopped and that the 2013 plasma TVs that are appearing in stores use Panasonic’s “last plasma panel”.


Panasonic has ceased plasma development but sales will continue into 2014 at the very least

He stresses that Panasonic will continue production and sales. The current 2013 line-up will be sold into 2014 at the very least, he says.

With Panasonic’s decision to exit from plasma TVs, an era ends. Panasonic’s plasma TVs have been recognized and applauded as the best TVs available by many experts in recent years. The 2013 models and the ZT60 flagship will be the last and best ever from the Japanese TV manufacturer.

OLED is Panasonic's future
Panasonic will instead focus on OLED technology for TVs. Kiyoshi Okamoto says that Panasonic has already moved several plasma engineers to the OLED division.

- “OLED is one of the key future products” he says.


Panasonic unveiled this 4K OLED-TV at CES

However, he offers no further details regarding OLED-TVs from Panasonic. Panasonic unveiled its first OLED-TV with the 56" 4K OLED TV at CES 2013 back in January but no plans to sell the TV has been announced.

- Source: The Verge