plasma is dead
ok, i'm talking from a purely technical perspective here. I'm not talking about the fuzzy warm feeling and color temperature and other subjective stuff.
Manufacturers of the panels HATE plasma.
- the tube is expensive to make ( yes it is still a TUBE ! . its got gas in it)
- the tube is heavy.
- needs high excitation voltages ( 80 to 140 volts )
- the driving electronics for such voltages produces a lot of heat.
the overall bill of material is a lot higher.
LCD is cheap. these days they 'print' lcd panels wth an injet like tehcnology. Two sheets of glass. seam weld them , add a drop of LC fluid , close entry point. attach row and column drivers , attach reflector / diffuser / attach light source ( LED's these days. CCFL is on its way out ) control electronics is 1 LSI chip that doesnt even get warm.
very easy to produce at a BOM cost ( Bill of material) that is 1/3 of a plasma ...
Plasma will stay for a while , but only for the very large displays.