What’s Going To Happen To Prices Of LCD TVs?

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Steve Jobs, the chief executive of Apple, usually tells it like it is. He wrote a famous letter to early buyers of the first generation iPhone, who were angry that its price was lowered by $200 just a few months after its launch.

Steve said that price drops in technology were a given and that:

“This is life in the technology lane”.
“If you always wait for the next price cut or to buy the new improved model, you’ll never buy any technology product because there is always something better and less expensive on the horizon.”

Well, Steve could have been talking about LCD TVs because every evolution of LCD TVs has seen either the price drop, or the screen size increase for the same price.

So if you’re wondering about what’s going to happen to prices of LCD TVs, they’re only going one way, despite what retailers might say about “protecting their margins”, “making up for a fall in the exchange rate” and that’s into the basement.

The fall in consumer spending and the current economic woes have forced retailers to cut prices and margin and fight hard for sales.

So if you are planning to spend on a big ticket item like an 42 inch, 47 inch or 50 inch LCD TV get ready to bargain hard, you’ll be a mug if you don’t!

You’re best objective is to aim to get a strong brand such as a Samsung, Sony, Sharp etc at a bargain price. You can expect better long term value from on eof these brands rather than a no-name cheap LCD TV. It’s worth paying a couple of hundred dollars more up front.

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Mar

Will SED Take Over From LCD TVs?

Filed Under LCD TV Buyers Guide, LCD TV News, LCD TV Prices, Value LCD TVs | Leave a Comment

Plasma and LCD TVs are the red hot item in the consumer electronics product category. But how long will this last?

Personally I think the hot streak is going to be long and strong, because the prices are falling and the TVs are still improving, especially the picture quality.

Price Movements
I’m sure in the first few months of this year that prices have taken a big step downwards again - I think the prices of some of the major brands could be down by 20% - for both LCD and Plasma TVs.

The value LCD TV brands seem to holding their price point - temporarily at least - at the floor they set late last year, but no doubt those will shift again soon, because the main brands are getting too close to them.

This is all fuelled by the ramp up in panel production of the huge 3rd generation LCD panel factories owned by the likes of Samsung and LG Philips LCD.

Anyway, what is SED?
SED stands for surface-conduction electron-emitter display. The main players so far in SED are Toshiba and Canon.

They have announced that they will start selling their first SED flat panel TVs in the fourth quarter of 2007.

SEDs are claimed to be an improvement because:
(a) they use light-beaming technology similar to that for CRT TVs i.e the pictures wil be more natural and not “digital”.

(b) the SED panels are thinner and consume less energy than Plasma and LCDs displays.

My Prediction
Hard to tell at this range. In another year Plasma and LCD TVs will have taken more steps forward in picture quality. HDTV (High Definition TV) will probably be standard for just about all Plasma and LCD TVs.

And of course, the prices will also have taken another few steps downward.

So, SED will have to be a real breakthrough to displace either Plasma or LCD. And to make it harder, by the end of 2007 a lot of us will already have a 42 inch LCD or Plasma TVs.

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What’s Going To Happen To Prices Of LCD TVs?

Will SED Take Over From LCD TVs?