Matsushita says good-bye to CRTs

Matsushita, the parent company of both Panasonic and JVC, announced that they're shutting down CRT manufacturing in Europe and the United States. Plants in both areas will cease production by March of 2006 and effectively make Matsushita a microdisplay and flat-panel only player.

I have to admit that I'm disappointed for sentimental reasons. My first HDTV set, which is still our primary set, is a 34-inch widescreen CRT from Panasonic's T[tau] series. We just celebrated the Panny's fourth birthday last month and he's growing up so fast. I'm also a little surprised that Matsushita hasn't taken the Samsung approach with slimmer-CRT development since the CRT sets have been solid performers.