Ouch! Brutal time to be in the CE biz -- Panasonic, Toshiba, Hitachi, and Sony all announced projections for losses in the billions this year.

It's not even a plasma/LCD issue given that Pioneer already had plans to introduce LCD sets this year (wonder how Sharp feels about taking an ownership stake in Pioneer now). Now, they are exiting the TV and DVD player business altogether. It a sad day for consumers because Pioneer was one of the performance leaders in both categories.

The economic downturn has decimated the upper end of many markets, and Pioneer never competed on price. Anyone who wants the top performing TVs on the market now needs to get their hands on one of the Pioneers before they disappear.