Fear the Timely Reaper: Pioneer Sets Up Final Schedule to Kill the Kuro TV
Posted in: Displays, Television, Today's Chili
A month after Pioneer announced it was ending its Plasma business by early 2010, the company has now released the exact date of execution for its beloved line of Kuro plasma TVs.
Four new models of Pioneer’s Kuro plasma HDTVs will be released on April 1st, but only 3,000 total units will be made. The two 50-inch Kuros, the KRP-500A and KRP-500M, will be priced around $3,500-$4,000 (based on previous estimates) and 2,500 of them will be available. The 60-inch Kuros, KRP-600A and KRP-600M, will be the most hard to find, with only 500 sets, likely nearing $6,000.
As the earlier announcement noted, Pioneer will service the needs of older Plasma TVs until 2017. By that time, though, we’ll likely be on our second autostereoscopic 3D TV and will have likely forgotten about any ‘Kuro secret sauce.’
Ever since they came out in 2007, the Pioneer Kuro TVs have been known for years for their great contrast ratio and overall excellent picture quality. Last month ago, I wrote on NewTeeVee that the end of the Kuro TV would come fast, but I didn’t expect the final release would be this small.
Among several reasons, the economic recession and the presence of improved LCDs tipped over all of the plasmas, but they also never really had a huge volume of sales because they were so expensive. Other TVs with good picture quality at lower prices unfortunately lessened the value of the Kuro, despite its best-in-class quality position.
According to Pioneer, 2.8 million Kuros were sold worldwide. Once the latest versions are sold out, they’ll be gone for good.
For those interested in buying one of the last Kuros, there is currently no word on how the company will distribute them to stores or whether they’ll sell them online only.
They should probably just put them up on eBay so that Plasma-loving customers can boost the price and the company can then give the extra profits to employees who lost their jobs in the closing of the Kuro plasma plants. But something tells me they won’t do that.
Photo: Pioneer, NTV, MGM
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