Posted by John Reilly on 10/22/2013 to
Interesting projector lamp stuff
Mitsubishi quits the projector business.
As of October 11th, Mitsubishi announced that it will cease all production of all front end projectors, stand alone and large format monitors. No orders will be shipped from their factories and all remaining inventory will be sold off in the next few months. A copy of the letter signed by Mr. Hiraoka, president of Mitsubishi Electric Visual Solutions America to their dealers can be found here on our website.
The reason for this sudden exit? Diminishing returns in the projector market was the answer given. Anyone selling projectors these days will probably vouch that profit margins are incredibly slim. The news was reported by several websites including rAVe publications, Projector Reviews and AV forums. There have been no updates to their Facebook or twitter accounts since October 3rd.
It appears that the WFX show in Dallas was their last hurrah. Although they were scheduled to attend the CCUMC show in Las Vegas, they pulled out at the last minute. A spokesperson at CCUMC (Consortium of College and University Media Centers) told us that they could not get in touch with anyone at Mitsubishi, prior to the show.
They will continue market their video wall products where they enjoy a leadership position.
Those that have Mitsubishi projectors may find it more difficult to source replacement parts even though they promise that they will continue to honor warranty contracts and supply parts.
We have found that some lamp types that are currently on back order are more difficult to get as customers begin to add extra spare lamps to their stock.
All Projector Lamps has a sizable stock pile of original Mitsubishi projector lamps as well as less expensive hybrids, and do not anticipate a problem with lamp supply for a year or so. Click here to find the lamp you need.
Unlike Sanyo's lamp supply issue, when Panasonic purchased the company. No one is left to supply original Mitsubishi lamps when supply runs out.
It may be a bit self serving, but we advise that anyone with a Mitsubishi projector, get their genuine Mitsubishi lamps now, before it's too late.