(2 April 2007 6:00 pm)

MUMBAI: Panasonic US which among other things works in trhe area of Plasma HDTVs has created two new unit companies that will be responsible exclusively for the increasingly strategic digital display business, including Plasma, LCD technologies.

Hideaki Harada will lead Panasonic's new consumer enterprise as president of Panasonic Display Company and Andrew Nelkin will lead the new business-to-business professional enterprise as President of Panasonic Professional Display Company. They will report to Panasonic US chairman and CEO Yoshi Yamada.

Harada says, "In creating the Panasonic Display Company, we are making a radical change in the way we get the job done and extending the transformation that Panasonic launched more than two years ago.

"This new organisation will shorten distances between product development, our factories and our sales and marketing functions enabling Panasonic to react even more swiftly to meet channel partner and customer demands.

"Our main objective is to continue to expand upon our leadership in Plasma TV market share while also growing our LCD and MMD business to build a leadership position across the entire flat panel industry".

Panasonic says that it has been the consumer Plasma market share leader for 108 of
the past 115 weeks, and Panasonic is also currently the professional display market share leader.

Nelkin sats, "Commercial flat panel displays are a very strategically important part of our business. Some of the leading sports arenas, hotels, restaurant chains and network television broadcasters feature Panasonic flat panel displays. We've established this new company to put an even greater emphasis on the professional side of the flat panel business led by our 103" Plasma HDTV, the world's largest."

Most recently, Panasonic announced deals for the installation of more than 5,000 Plasma HDTVs at the new Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, 103" Plasmas on the set of NBC's Football Night In America programme,
and a range of large-screen flat panel displays at Miami's Dolphin Stadium.