Matsushita announced on Thursday August 25 that it will start selling its newest 65-ich PDP television for just under one million Yen in November 2005 in Japan, which is almost half the price of its earlier 65-inch PDP television model. The new model is said to be the world's first PDP television with full high definition image quality, as it has a resolution of 1,920 by 1,080 pixels. Currently, Sharp sells a 65-inch LCD television for 1.7 million Yen.

 

The company stated that in September it will start selling three other PDP television models as well, with sizes of 37, 42 and 50 inches, for 340,000 Yen, 440,000 Yen and 580,000 Yen respectively. To support this push in the PDP television market, Matsushita will start production at its new plant in Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan in October at the latest, earlier than the originally expected starting date in November. When the new plant reaches full capacity in 2006, the company will be able to generate an annual production of five million PDP televisions, up from current annual output of two million units.