Panasonic to put plasma display in cell phone

"We have defined our future as the dominant seller of plasma televisions, even though other display types have taken away percentage points in some screen sizes. We know that plasma is still the magic word that excites most buyers, and recent decisions by Pioneer and Fujitsu to exit the plasma display panel business offer us the opportunity to gain market share."

Mark Balsama then addressed the group and revealed plans to incorporate newly developed, miniature plasma displays in telephone products. "This is my first official day back at work, and I have a very exciting announcement to make. For nearly a decade, Panasonic's engineers have been secretly working on a thin, lightweight low-voltage compact plasma display. We have recently reached a licensing agreement for some key technology with product developer AbleComm, Inc. -- the same company that conceived our very successful KX-TVS50 voicemail system over 10 years ago. We will be able to incorporate miniature plasma displays into both consumer and business telephone products starting this fall. They will rival OLED displays for brightness, contrast and thinness, and can be manufactured for much less money."

AbleComm president Michael N. Marcus said, "This is an unexpected and happy coincidence for all of us. Our company has had a long relationship with Panasonic. Several years ago we developed a family of high-efficiency headsets for use with Panasonic business phones, and it turned out that a proprietary component used in those headsets was exactly what Panasonic needed to complete the development of their low-voltage miniaturized plasma displays."

Balsama continued, "Many of our new phones will have vibrant color plasma screens that can run on just 1.5 volts and won't require any additional wiring or special power supplies. We'll be able to put plasma in cell phones, business phones, consumer phones, corded phones, cordless phones, and even door intercom monitors and fax machines. We will revolutionize the consumer electronics business, as Panasonic has done many times before."

Robert A. Perry, the new Senior Vice President of Panasonic Consumer Electronics Company who is responsible for marketing plasma and LCD HDTVs, also addressed the meeting. He said, "Our plasma expertise and our large- scale, efficient manufacturing will allow these new small Panasonic plasma screens to replace LCDs in many applications -- gasoline pumps, automated teller machines, camera viewfinders, MP3 players, vending machines, automotive displays, digital photo frames, appliance touch screens and even the little pop-up screens on printers. In fact, I am pleased to announce that we will be supplying mini plasma screens to HP for an exclusive two-year period for use in their printers. We view our thin low-voltage PDP technology as a pre- emptive strike against OLED technology."