With demand for tube televisions in an obvious decline, Panasonic announced that it will halt production of CRT TVs for good.
The company, which started producing tube TVs in 1954, had already stopped production in Japan in 2005, CrunchGear reports. However, emerging markets such as China and Southeast Asia still demanded cheap, cathode ray tube-based TVs, and so Panasonic kept selling them through a joint venture with Beijing Matsushita Color CRT.
Now, even those emerging economies are more interested in flat-panel LCD and plasma TVs. Panasonic will sell its stake in Bejing Matsushita so it can focus solely on the high-definition business.
In the United States, new CRT TVs are tough to find. Best Buy, for instance, sells a 27-inch tuber from Dynex for $170, and even that's marked as an outlet item, so you probably won't find it at the store. I also looked around Amazon, and all I could find was an obscure brand called Haier. The only CRT TVs I could find from major manufacturers are being sold by individual retailers on the Amazon Marketplace.
Even though I'd never go back to a standard-definition television, it's sad to know that tube TVs have faded almost completely from the market. They're dirt cheap, which makes them ideal for dorm rooms, and you can't argue with their ability to produce blacks. I also miss the way those old TVs turned on and off in a hurry, putting the warm-up times of today's HDTVs to shame.
Anyone want to raise a glass for the late, great tube television?
