Warranties
As well as the nature of the global economy, the adverse market conditions also include a strengthening of the Yen against the dollar and a savagely competitive flat-screen TV market meaning all vendors are struggling. Pioneer also announced it would be cutting a further 6,000 permanent and 4,000 temporary staff on top of previous cuts.
An AV industry insider who wished to remain anonymous told HEXUS.channel that they are confident that Pioneer's existing five year warranty on its TVs will be maintained.
A supplementary statement from Pioneer appears to confirm that: "Naturally we will continue to guarantee the reputable quality of our products. This also means that the after-sale service will be fully maintained so that all customers will be able to continue to benefit from the applicable Pioneer warranties. In other words, you can continue to count on Pioneer."
The same insider suggested that we could well see the prices of Pioneer plasmas, which are reside in the premium end of the market, could well go up as people rush to get hold of one before they go out of circulation.
Pioneer's departure will leave a gap at the top end of the display market. While consumer sentiment remains cautious there may be no great rush to fill it but eventually new vendors and perhaps new technologies, like OLED, are expected to step into the breach.
