The U.S. is a battleground for global television manufacturing giants, with major TV brands like Samsung, LG, Sony, and Vizio dominating the market with yearly releases of their most up-to-date TV offerings. Newcomers like TCL and Hisense have also made strides in recent years by offering feature-rich television sets at competitive prices. While the current U.S. television market is mostly dominated by Korean and Chinese brands, there was a point when it was a thriving space for Japanese manufacturers.
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Up until the mid-2000s, plasma TVs were the trend in the global television market. Around this time, Japanese brands, including Fujitsu, Toshiba, Pioneer, and Panasonic, thrived with this display technology. However, the rapid advancements in the electronics space gave rise to the likes of LCD, LED, and OLED displays and shifted the attention of consumers to the superior picture quality of newer devices. Japanese manufacturers that banked on plasma technology soon found themselves either retreating from overseas markets or shutting down their TV-focused operations, as in the case of Pioneer and Fujitsu.
In 2015, Panasonic, alongside Toshiba, decided to exit the U.S. to focus on its domestic market. As one of those brands that banked big on plasma screen technology, it struggled to keep pace as more consumers shifted to the more efficient but less expensive LCD and LED displays. A year later, the formerly household name in American electronics officially stopped selling its TVs in the country. In the years that followed, Korean and Chinese brands took over and filled the void left by Panasonic and other Japanese TV makers.
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