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Pioneer, one of the leading names in plasma, may stop manufacturing plasma panels. However, it would still market plasma sets, sourcing the panels from Panasonic. So say Japanese press reports anticipating an announcement to follow at the end of this week. The report originated with the Japanese news organization Nikkei and was picked up by both Reuters and the Associated Press.

As with LCDs, there are fewer companies making the guts of plasma sets than there are marketing them. Pioneer is the world's fifth-largest plasma TV manufacturer, operating four production lines, two of them purchased from NEC. Some of them may remain open to assemble sets using panels from Panasonic (which recently changed its corporate name from Matsushita).

Historically Pioneer was one of the first plasma TV makers, and one of the best, using deep-cell technology to minimize the screen-door effect that marred early plasmas. The Pioneer Kuro line is among the best of its breed--look, it says so right here.

But Pioneer has sold only 480,000 plasma sets in the just-concluded fiscal year, considerably less than the hoped-for 720,000 units, and just one-tenth of Panasonic's sales projections. Like many other companies, Pioneer is also sourcing LCD panels from another manufacturer, in this case Sharp.