Matsushita to sell 42-inch full high def plasma TV

Panasonic maker Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. said on Tuesday it planned to launch the world's first 42-inch plasma TVs with full high definition panels on April 27 in Japan.

Matsushita hopes to challenge liquid crystal display TV makers by providing a better lineup of full high definition models, which can produce images with a resolution of 1,920 by 1,080 pixels.

Matsushita is the world's largest plasma TV maker and competes with Sony Corp., Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and Sharp Corp. in the $84 billion flat TV market.

Plasma TV makers already offer 50-inch and larger full high-definition models, but it has been difficult and often costly to pack this technology into smaller models.

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The 42-inch TVs from Matsushita are expected to sell for 410,000 yen to 430,000 yen ($3,449-$3,617), the Osaka-based company said.

It plans to manufacture 25,000 units of them a month for the domestic market. The Japan launch will soon be followed by overseas debuts.

Matsushita's plasma TV sales came to an equivalent of about 4 million 42-inch models in the year ended March 31, and the company aims to boost those sales by 50 percent to 6 million units in the current business year, a company spokesman said.

Matsushita, which controls one-third of the global plasma TV market according to DisplaySearch, plans to bring its $1.5 billion plasma display plant onstream by summer 2007 to take on the LCD camp.