Matsushita's European strategy paying off
Europe isn't much on HD programming (yet), but that doesn't mean there's no demand for HDTVs. A recent article highlighting Matsushita's (Panasonic's parent company) European presence states that its share there is now bigger than ever thanks to a "combination of marketing and restructuring efforts over the past several years." As the competition within the North American sector has skyrocketed, Matsushita has been able to reap profits from Europeans willing to pay for a quality product. Europe actually made up 45% of its overseas sales of all digital electronics during the fiscal year ended March 2008, while just 25% came from the US, Canada and Mexico. It's also suggested that one of Matsushita's missteps here in the US was its reliance on selling pricey plasma TVs at a limited number of stores, and anyone that lives here knows that we Americans appreciate cheap. A pretty interesting read, though we still wish Europe would stop spending cash on digital photo frames and start investing in high-def programming. Yeah, selfish.
