Panasonic confirms the end of Technics turntables

Following weeks of rumours and speculation, Panasonic has confirmed that their Technics brand of turntables has been discontinued.

The Osaka-based technology company sent out the following statement yesterday:

Panasonic has confirmed that it ceased the production of its Technics-branded analogue turntables this autumn.

After more than 35 years as a leading manufacturer of analogue turntables, Panasonic has regretfully taken the decision to leave this market. However, Panasonic will continue to sell headphones under the Technics brand.

We are sure that retailers and consumers will understand that our product range has to reflect the accelerating transformation of the entire audio market from analogue to digital.

In addition, the number of component suppliers serving the analogue market has dwindled in recent years and we brought forward the decision to leave the market rather than risk being unable to fulfill future orders because of a lack of parts.

Panasonic employees who have been working on the analogue turntable range have been redeployed elsewhere within Panasonic – many of them continuing to work in Panasonic’s Audio Video Business Unit.

Resident Advisor recently spoke with JC Faxas, the main DJ Buyer for Guitar Center Inc, the biggest distributor of Technics products in the United States. Based on meetings with Technics' vice president, he confirmed much of Panasonic's statement, especially that a shortage of essential parts was the key factor in their decision. "Panasonic had been using some of the same parts manufacturers for over 40 years and most had gone out of business, so it would be very difficult and expensive to get some of those parts in production once again."

But after working directly with Technics for over a decade, Faxas also thinks the brand could have survived if Panasonic valued it more highly. "In my opinion, if Technics was a stand-alone company and not part of Panasonic, then there would be sufficient business for the company to continue. I feel that Technics has always been pocket change to Panasonic, whose upper management never took the DJ business seriously. The question now is whether a manufacturer will step up with a suitable alternative since there will never be a true replacement."


Source

wow!
mmm...vinyls are going to disappear...
tnx fo the news.

what happens to the 1000s who own 1200s? Will they continue to be supported by dealers worldwide?
I know I won't be able to buy one anymore, can I at least keep servicing mine at least? OMG!!!
There's NO way..... many people gonna switch to pure CDJs or whatever digital toy is out there LOL.
I'm fell really worried about this :( , Cuz I LUV my 1200's

Great news :


Wednesday, 09 December 2009 12:15 PM

Panasonic have released an official statement that claims they have no current plans to discontinue the Technics brand of turntables.

If you've been keeping your ears to the ground over the past month, you'll most likely have heard a few people commenting that Technics would be discontinuing their trademark 1200 and 1210 turntables. The story first emerged at the DMCWorld site, where we were informed that:
We have just heard the sad news from Panasonic (the manufacturer of Technics) that production of the world famous Technics SL-1200 and SL-1210 DJ turntables will stop at the end of February 2010. This marks the end of an era – Technics have been the industry standard for over 35 years with this turntable and the SL-1200 is synonymous with the DJ culture.
The alleged statement was later repeated on sites such as Future Music and the Global Hardstyle forums, before quickly spreading across the internet.

Surprise, shock and disbelief were the common reactions to the rumours, and this was only compounded when Australia's In The Mix site issued another statement from Panasonic spokesperson Ian North on November 27th. North was reported to have said that, "It is a sad day today, but due to low sales globally in analogue turntables a decision to stop production has been made on Technics Turntables. For Australia this means we will receive our last shipment in March."

However, just three days later, North spoke to the Australian branch of Cnet, stating that his comments to In The Mix were "premature." North talked about the "decline in the analog market," before adding, "We are still supplying our dealers and we still have stock coming in." That said, in the same article, Ryan Hochkins of Australian DJ equipment retailer DJ Warehouse has commented on ongoing distribution issues in his territory. "There's always people who come in and want to buy Technics whether they're at the price they are at now or the price they were at two years ago, but it was never easy for us to get them," Hochkins states.

While all this was going on elsewhere, the DMCUpdate page where the story first originated was altered, now informing readers that: "Our latest update on the subject of the continued production of Technics turntables is that Panasonic NZ have now been advised by Panasonic Japan that there has not been an official decision made either way at this time. It may be some time before there is an official announcement from Panasonic Japan but we will keep you updated." In The Mix was also finding it difficult to get a straight answer from Panasonic, with the Australian branch of the multi-national offering a closing statement that said, "In regard to the discontinuation of Technics analogue turntables, Panasonic Corp. has made no official global announcement with regard to this matter. Panasonic Australia is unable to provide any further comment."

All this speculation and the lack of clear facts emerging led many to question whether this was all a clever stunt by Panasonic to increase demand in the short-term leading up to Christmas, with the Inverted Audio blog asking, "is this a mean viral marketing stratergy to boost global sales of their turntables?"

Well, we can now reveal that all talk of production stopping on Technics turntables has been untrue, as Panasonic have issued us with the following:
"As a major global business, Panasonic keeps all of its operations under constant review. However, there are no current plans to discontinue the Technics brand and the production of Technics turntables."
We prompted the company to answer more questions regarding which particular models would be continued, but the Panasonic spokesperson made it clear that this was all that they were willing to divulge at this point in time.

Source : http : // www . residentadvisor.net/news.aspx?id=11415

Sounds like old news to me...

Wednesday, 09 December 2009 12:15 PM