If this rumor is true than an icon in the TV segment is vanishing. According to Reuters Pioneer mulls exiting the TV business. Pioneer is looking at a projected loss of $848.6 million for the year ending March 31st. Their highly regarded Plasma HDTVs are a loss maker for Pioneer these days.

Pioneer has a high brand value for TVs. The quality of their KURO line of Plasma HDTVs is amazing. It would be very sad to lose them. On the other hand Pioneer has to go with the times. If other TV makers can create affordable LCD TVs with image quality closing in on Pioneer KURO Plasma HDTVs than Pioneer needs to innovate or indeed die. A German high-end TV maker had a similar situation when they missed the flat panel trend and were still in tube land.
But Loewe is back with record revenues and is now making high-end flat panel HDTV art. Maybe Pioneer needs to call the Loewe guys to get some tips on how to turn a corner in the TV business.