14 October: Follow this link for an UPDATE to this story
Mitsubishi Electric is to cease Visual Information Systems division operations in six European countries as it withdraws from the front-projection and public display markets. The company’s European display wall business will be consolidated in the Netherlands, with the result that dedicated VIS division operations in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Sweden six countries will close. Technical support, which is operated separately from the VIS division, will continue to be provided locally.
The Japanese manufacturer is to focus its efforts on rear-projection cubes, display wall products and super-narrow bezel displays.
Installation understands that production of Mitsubishi Electric projectors and public displays in Japan has ceased, but that the company will support these product lines until March 2019. Production resources will be redeployed into the company’s display wall business. It is believed that the company will seek to consolidate its position within the command and control, traffic management and security monitoring markets.
Mitsubishi Electric is not the only Japanese display product manufacturer to be taking major strategic decisions at the moment. This news follows just days after Toshiba axed 3,000 jobs from its TV division, and Panasonic was reported to be exiting plasma production by spring 2014 – although that report was subsequently contradicted by the manufacturer.
