With economic melt down in its peak, all major consumer electronics manufacturers are claiming devastating loss for the first quarter of 2009. At one point of time, many of the display manufacturers backed from the venture of producing plasma display panel. Panasonic Corp. is one among the leading electronics brand who boldly took the step to back the plasma display technology during the crunch time. According to the recent reports, Panasonic has posted a loss of 52.98 billion yen in the fiscal first quarter of 2009.
Price pressure and the slump in demand for high end electronic gadgets are pointed out as the major reasons for the fall in Panasonic’s revenue. Nowadays cheaper gadgets with a decent quality is available in market. Economical brands are enjoying a bigger slice of the market especially during this recession. Panasonic achieved a sky-rocketing profit of around 73.03 billion yen last year. However, Panasonic has shown a a massive decline in the latest reports regarding the revenue of the first fiscal quarter of 2009. The revenue plummeted by 26% (25.9% to be exact) to 1.6 trillion yen for the April-June Quarter.
It is also noticeable that Panasonic has axed out 15,000 employees and is planning to kill dozens of plants as they are struggling to recover from the first annual loss in 6 years. It is told that Lumix Digital Cameras and VIERA display panels has fuelled the quarterly loss of this firm. Panasonic personnels revealed that they are changing the focus into emerging markets like India and China. Sales dropped in all major products including home appliances, personal computer, televisions and video products.
Don’t think that Panasonic is the only electronics giant stumbling in the economic meltdown. Sony Corp. has reported a loss of 37.1 billion yen in the Q1 of 2009. Sharp Corp. is reported to have a loss of around 25.2 billion yen in the April-June Quarter 2009. It is surprising that despite of the disappointing red lines from most of the major consumer electronics brands, Samsung Electronics has managed to show a thick green line in the revenue graph.
