PANASONIC MAINTAINS GLOBAL #1 POSITION IN CORDLESS TELEPHONES

Data from Leading Research Firm Confirms Substantial Lead in Worldwide Sales of Consumer Telephones

Secaucus, NJ (November 23, 2009) – Panasonic System Networks Company of America today announced that it maintained its #1 global leadership position in the cordless telephone market for the full calendar year 2008. Market data from the prominent information technology research firm MZA Ltd. confirms Panasonic’s #1 position in worldwide shipments of DECT* cordless phones and other digital cordless phones.

Panasonic’s share of the global cordless telephone market in 2008 was 19%, according to the MZA report, “The Global Consumer Cordless Telephony Market.” The nearest competitor held an 11% share of the global market.

“Panasonic continues to be consumers’ favourite because we start with the consumers’ needs in mind,” said Bill Taylor, President, Panasonic System Networks Company of America. “From handset design to features such as Talking Caller ID, our focus is on what consumers need and how our phones can enhance their daily lives. Consumers have made Panasonic the #1 brand year after year and know they can count on Panasonic telephones to deliver exceptional reliability and affordability.”

MZA reported that DECT phones showed strong growth in North America relative to other digital cordless phones. In DECT technology Panasonic’s market position was even stronger, rising from 20% in 2007 to 23% in 2008, surpassing the next nearest competitor by 8 points of market share.

MZA concluded that a variety of factors continue to drive sales, including a large customer base that prefers to own a landline phone, attractively priced packages from telephone service providers and the availability of multi-handset bundles.

*DECT: Digitally Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications standard for minimal interference and extended range and battery life

Panasonic Z1

Panasonic’s flagship HDTV is its thinnest 54-inch (137cm) plasma HDTV ever, with only 2.5cm depth. They did it by eliminating a third sheet of glass found in all other plasmas except Pioneer’s Kuro and bonding the anti-reflective coating directly top glass. The Z1 employs SiBEAM’s 60GHz 1080p for wireless glitch-free images sent via the included transmitter/media box from up to 10m away. The Z1 has THX picture mode and a custom calibration mode, plus nice bonus features including Viera Cast internet connectivity and an SD card reader for photos. The Z1 delivers amazing performance with full 1080-line motion resolution, accurate HD colour, deep black levels and 96Hz for judder free movie viewing.

The sexiest HDTV of 2009, the TH-P54Z1A has an RRP of $7000 in Australia.

Pioneer Kuro Plasma Screens

The Kuro models offer the deepest black of any high-definition display on the market — without any white-letter-on-black-background halos occasionally seen on plasma TVs. The Kuro models feature hand-selected parts, 6cm depth, custom calibration, 72Hz refresh and control over the internet via its Ethernet connection. The Pioneer uses a single top sheet of glass to minimise internal reflections, with the anti-reflection coating bonded directly to the surface.

In Australia, the 50-inch (127cm) PDPLX509A retails for $6499, while a 60-inch (152cm) size PDPLX609A has an RRP of $12,499.

Samsung Series 8

Samsung has the slimmest LED television in the world (3cm deep). It’s feature packed with wireless connectivity, four HDMI inputs, no edge blur thanks to 200Hz refresh, a PV+C input for connection to your computer or HTPC, and it uses 40 per cent less energy than previous similar-sized LCD TVs. This is a benchmark LED LCD to judge against every other make and model.

All this performance comes at a price. The 46-inch (117cm) UA46B8000 and the 55-inch (140cm) UA55B8000 retails for $4699 and $6499, respectively.

LG LH90QD

This LG has all the hot LCD performance features video freaks crave, including LED backlights for excellent black levels, invisible speakers, and TruMotion 200Hz for increased sharpness and reduced motion blur. This LG also has all the tweaks anyone could ask for including ISF calibration and LG’s “picture wizard” for user set-up without calibration discs or external test signals. The LH90 isn’t the thinnest LED LCD, but it more than makes up for it with its price.

The LG LH90 series is available in 42-inch (107cm) and 47-inch (119cm) screen sizes in Australia. The 42LH90QD has an RRP of $4024 and the 47LH90QD goes for $4944. In case you couldn’t tell, the LH90 series is the value/performance leader of the pack.

Sony XBR

The XBR series is the only HDTV available with separate red, green and blue LED backlights (rather than all white). It’s got accurate HDTV colour, local dimming for deep black levels, enough brightness for a beach house, a 178-degree viewing angle, 100Hz Motionflow technology and Sony’s Bravia Engine 2 signal processing.

There are three screen sizes available in Australia. The KDL40XBR45 40-inch (102cm) version retails for $2999, the 46-inch (117cm) KDL46XBR45 retails for $4999, and the 55-inch (140cm) KDL55XBR45 goes for $8499.

Gary Merson is the HD Guru, the industry’s leading HDTV journalist. He’s been reviewing TVs for well over a decade, and recently wrote a guide to choosing an HDTV.

The thing has a 9-inch display, SD slot, 4GB of internal memory and USB connectivity. It’ll be $US300, which is expensive enough that you might want to get a photo frame, iPod dock and speakers separately. Those components will probably perform better than this all-in-one anyway. [Pr Newswire via Engadget]

According to Panasonic, their system controls lighting to guarantee “good sleeping”. I don’t know about you but, to me, “good sleeping” means a large bed, a good doona and someone special to spoon with all night. Still, if you want to get close to the experience of hibernation in a deep space vessel, this is the place to go. [9hours via 9h]

At the moment, only 10 per cent of PCs or TVs are actually recycled in this country, and even those generally have a cost involved with them. The introduction of a mandatory recycling scheme should see that number increase to over 80 per cent, which could save up to 2.5 million tonnes of e-waste sent to landfill over the next 20 years.

The scheme is most likely going to be industry driven, and will consequently mean that the TV manufacturers will pass on the costs to consumers at the point of sale. The good news is that the EPHC (Environment Protection and Heritage Council) report reckons that the cost would be between $5-$10 for each TV, which is such an insignificant sum when buying something worth hundreds or thousands of dollars that it makes you wonder why this wasn’t introduced years ago.

So far, Panasonic, Sony and Sharp have filled my inbox with press releases stating their public support for the scheme. Lets hope that all the other manufacturers jump on board as well, and this thing gets up sooner rather than later…

[EPHC (pdf)]

If you do happen to pick up an eligible plasma TV from Panny between October 24 and December 24 this year, you’ll be eligible to receive either an HD Tough LUMIX Camera pack valued at $643, an HD Blu-ray Home Theatre valued at $1,099 or an HD Twin Tuner DVD Recorder with 250GB HDD also valued at $1,099.

There are 12,000 of each bonus gift to giveaway, which isn’t too many. I can’t imagine too many people would jump at the camera pack either considering the much lower value in comparison. But still, if bonus free stuff influences your TV purchasing decisions, this isn’t a bad little offer.

The eligible TVs are as follows:

TH-P54Z1A 54-inch Full HD 1080p $6,999
TH-P58V10A 58-inch Full HD 1080p $4,599
TH-P50V10A 50-inch Full HD 1080p $3,299
TH-P50G15A 50-inch Full HD 1080p $2,999
TH-P42G15A 42-inch Full HD 1080p $2,299
TH-P50G10A 50-inch Full HD 1080p $2,799
TH-P46G10A 46-inch Full HD 1080p $2,499
TH-P42G10A 42-inch Full HD 1080p $2,099
TH-P54S10A 54-inch Full HD 1080p $3,399
TH-P50S10A 50-inch Full HD 1080p $2,599
TH-P46S10A 46-inch Full HD 1080p $2,299
TH-P42S10A 42-inch Full HD 1080p $1,899

[Panasonic]

What the &*^@ is Micro Four Thirds? Olympus and Panasonic co-developed what’s called the Micro Four Thirds standard just last year. The biggest difference to the eye is the smaller-than-SLR lens mount that incompatible with SLRs unless you deploy an adaptor. Internally, the standard ditches the mirrors used in SLRs and uses a four thirds CMOS (not micro four thirds chip!) to capture the image straight from the lens (just like a point and shoot). That sensor is roughly 30% smaller than that found in your average dSLR but 9 times bigger than what’s in your average point and shoot. The result is a camera ever so slightly smaller than a dSLR that should give you a similar end image quality.

The end camera is just a tad smaller than a baseline dSLR:

But it’s still way bigger than your average point and shoot:

The big not-so-secret
There are only four products on the market at this point (Panasonic G1, its video-centric brother, the GH1, Olympus E-P1 and, of course, the Panasonic GF1), and they all have the exact same 13MP Panasonic sensor. But only the latest two, the GF1 and the E-P1, have taken advantage of the smaller technology to create design-forward cameras.

The spoiler
However, if you’re going to buy one of these cameras, you probably want the GF1 ($900 with 14-45mm lens). It couples all the good stuff from Panasonic’s existing line with a retro body that’s eerily similar to the Olympus E-P1.

The build
The GF1 is too big, and it’s too heavy. The Panasonic GF1 is indeed smaller than my Canon XTi, but it still won’t fit in your pocket.

Yet I love carrying it around. Why? The body feels solid, as if it’s from another era, a Utopian time when men were men and companies built hardware to last—before we valued sissy silver painted plastic more than the metal it was emulating.

The GF1 (and the Olympus E-P1 for that matter) feels like a small tank in your hands, an element of war that won’t give up after being tossed in a bag recklessly. If dropped on an iPod from over 3 feet, the iPod would certainly be crushed.
There are neither too many buttons nor too few. A familiar circle rotates between shooting modes naturally and burst and timer modes share a switch right in front of it. A d-pad toggles functions like ISO while a clever clicking dial allows you to adjust shutter speed and f-stops.
A few buttons earn their very own functions, like focusing mode, exposure lock and, maybe most cleverly, video. Hitting this little button to the right of the shutter release switches you to video no matter what mode you’re in.

Given the almost retro-style build, however, it was tough for me to lose an optical viewfinder (though a digital optical add-on is available). It’s a heavy camera to hold outstretched while framing shots on the viewfinder. But luckily, the 3-inch LCD’s 460,000 pixels mean you can just manage to find critical focus, thanks to the screen auto-zooming to your subject during manual focusing, though it can be tough to be sure you’ve really nailed it.

That screen resolution is below a premium dSLR, but it’s about twice as sharp as the E-P1—and you’ll notice.
And then there’s the flash. Unlike the E-P1, the GF1 has one of these bad boys, and Panasonic has celebrated that fact by designing what must be the most complicatedly mechanical flash on the market. Watching it snap from the camera body is both impressive and worrisome. Can these little struts really hold up? Regardless, it’s handy to have, even though a perk of buying such a big, expensive camera is avoiding flash photography.

The pictures
Check out all of my GF1 test shots on Flickr, untouched JPEGs pulled right off the GF1.

Honestly, there’s not much we can say about the quality of the GF1’s sensor that hasn’t been said (by us, even.) The biggest particular problem is ISO noise, as you can see in the gallery below. Bottom line: the GF1 supports ISOs up to 3200, but you probably don’t want to reach beyond 800.
However, with that disclosure out of the way, I’d like to make a few points.

1. Shooting on the GF1 feels like shooting on an SLR. I’m not just talking about the ease of tweaking advanced controls. I mean, you pull the trigger, the camera takes a shot RIGHT THEN. For dSLR owners, that’s nothing new. For P&S owners, that’s a revelation.

2. There is undoubtedly more noise with Panasonic’s sensor in high ISOs than you could find in dSLRs for a similar price. But, the image quality you can achieve—I mean that intangible mix of sensor size and great glass that makes your photos feel professional—is undoubtedly beyond the realm of point and shoots, well in the SLR ballpark.

The BEST shot I was able to recreate of that watch above on my Canon P&S?
Needless to say, pretty gross stuff.

3. The Live View system features what’s, hands down, the best function I’ve ever see on any Live View system yet. Holding a Shutter Mode Effect button previews the motion blur you can expect in your final shot—saving you the heartache of the perfect preview and horrible blurry-faced end product we’ve all experience on point and shoots.
The only catch? The system didn’t work well in daylight, when you might want to use Live View to preview sports motion blur. Note that this car didn’t blur at all in my preview, nor did about 20 similar test shots I took in identical conditions.
However, low light tests worked fine.

The 720P video I’d describe as solid but not extraordinary. The AVCHD (or motion JPEG) video, while inherently better than P&S systems or Mino HDs, is not razor sharp. Without side by side comparisons or the wonderful popping colours you get with a bit of sunlight (it rained through my entire testing period), I can’t make any definitive statements. But what I’ve seen from the T1i seems better (richer colours, sharper figures), and not just because it’s 1080P.

Versus the EP-1
There are definitely a few key advantages to buying a GF1 instead of Olympus’ E-P1. They include:

• Sharper screen
• Faster autofocus (I’d estimate about 3x faster—it’s noticeable)
• Built-in flash (the Olympus requires an optional mount)

But it should be noted, the E-P1 has its image stabilisation inside its body while Panasonic relies on its IS kit lens. In other words, every lens the Olympus uses will have inherent image stabilisation. Also, Olympus allows autofocusing on all Micro Four Thirds and Four Thirds lenses. The GF1 can accept these lenses, but it only retains autofocus on its own brand. In other words, lens fanatics may find the E-P1 the better bet. And if you find one or the other on some super sale, well, it’s a toss-up.

Confession
The real reason I enjoyed shooting on the GF1, and the real reason you’re interested in Micro Four Thirds if you are indeed interested, has nothing to do with practicality.

I just feel cool using it.
I like walking around Chicago with the GF1 on my shoulder. It gives me that feeling of Leica superiority without the expense. The Micro Four Thirds system may have originated in Japan, but the romance of shooting on the latest systems is purely European. For the first time in a long time, a piece of electronics has made me long for an era and a place that I never knew.

Every soccer mum tourist in Chicago has a dSLR. They may take prettier photos than I do, but damn do I long to be different once in a while. And I’m here to say that, if you crave a Micro Four Thirds for the same reason, it’s my opinion that the GF1 works well enough that, well, that’s OK. I’m just not trading my dSLR for one.

Incredibly solid build

Best screen in class

Unique shutter blur preview

General stylishness and badassery

Video is good, not great

Same CMOS found in earlier version/competition

IS in kit lens, not camera

You see, in the future, when we’re flying around in cars and Will Smith is saving us from over-protective robots, the dishes will wash themselves.

Case in point, in the video this robot/video camera contraption has magic hands that grip, wash, dump out and otherwise do all the things I had planned on forcing my kids to do after dinner in the future.

Panasonic is also working on a robot load lifter that converts into a motorised wheelchair, which will be perfect for all those elderly folks in the future who double as deliverymen. [Impress via Engadget]

The offer’s available for the SC-BT200, SC-BT207 and SC-BT105W Blu-ray home theatre systems, which retail for $1,099, $1,649 and $1,869 respectively. The 12 month subscription includes two rentals at a time with up to eight rentals a month, and is valued at $239.40. The offer is running from tomorrow, October 17 2009 through to February 1, 2010.

Sounds pretty good if you need a home theatre system. Better than a kick in the teeth, anyway.

[Panasonic]

For your chance to win the BD recorder or the grand prize of a Full HD Home Theatre System (TV and all!), join Panasonic on Facebook or Twitter to receive clues about where the fugitives are hiding out.

How it works:

1. Every Monday and Thursday at 9AM, clues are revealed on Panny’s Twitter and Facebook pages
2. Decode the clues to find the website where the fugitives are hiding (hint* check banners)
3. Click the banner to reach the concealed capture page
4. Print out the captured fugitives from the capture page
5. Take a photo of yourself with the fugitives as proof you caught them
6. Post that photo on Panasonic’s Facebook Page before the start of the next hunt, and you’re in the draw.

Happy hunting!

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