According to the market researcher DisplaySearch, the price of 52-inch LCD TVs was expected to fall to $2,300 by the third quarter of 2008. However, the economic downturn means that prices have further further and faster than expected.

Home appliance makers have targetted 52-inch LCD TV as the major item for the flat-panel TV market for the next year and they are competing to get their share of the market.

Samsung this year sold around 790,000 52-inch LCD TVs, but expects the sales to grow to 1.95 million units next year aided by new products based on 120Hz technology and equipped with LED backlights.

LG Electronics has added wireless transmission and PC connectivity features to its lineup of 52-inch LCD TVs

Samsung’s LE52F96BD’s 52-inch LCD TVs is a leading example of the category. It uses Samsung’s Digital Natural Image engine to improve colour saturations/tones and fine detailing, as well as providing further boosts to black levels and motion control.

The most interesting capability of the TV though is LED backlighting using an array of LED backlights, which are all individually controllable.

The advantages of this approach are much deeper black levels and a jaw-dropping contrast ratio of 500,000:1.

With HD DVDs dark scenes like the opening shots of Ocean’s Thirteen on Blu-ray look spectacular and dynamic because the range between the screen’s peak whites and deepest blacks is huge and because the darkness contains more subtle detailing helping the picture look more full of depth.

The report analyses the supply chain relationships between LCD TV module makers, LCD TV manufacturers and LCD TV brands.

According to the Q3 2006 report, 10.8 million LCD TV units were shipped.

77 percent of the LCD TVs were produced by LCD TV brands’ (e.g. Samsung, Sharp, Sony, Philips etc) in-house production lines.

The remaining 23 percent of the were made by external OEMs i.e. produced for “house brands” and the like.

Highlights of the Q3 2006 Report:

Note that the following LCD TV brands outsourced 100% of their LCD TV set manufacturing:
- Dell
- Grundig
- HP
- Polaroid
- Relysis
- Syntax-Brillian
- Vizio
- ViewSonic
- Westinghouse

Of 23% LCD TVs that were outsourced, the major subcontracted manufacturers were TPV, Jabil, AmTRAN, Quanta and Vestel. Jabil was the only manufacturer in the top 10 that was not also a TV brand.

Samsung was the leading LCD TV set manufacturer with 13.2% share in Q3 2006, closely followed by Sharp. Philips, Samsung, Sharp and Sony were the top customers for 6 of the top 7 suppliers.

Top LCD TV OEMs by size:
- Samsung LCD TVs led at 26”-27” and 32” and was #2 at 40”. These three sizes accounted for a 55% share of Q3’06 shipments.

- Philips was in the top 3 at each of the sizes it participated in.

- Funai led the 20”-21” segment with a 16% share.

- Sharp LCD TV had a high share at 37” at 21%.

- Sony and LGE dominated the 40” and 42” segments with 40% and 25% shares respectively.

LCD televisions have other benefits compared with plasmas TVs. They are easier to maintain, claim a longer picture life and they use less power. Most new LCD TVs support high definition signals so they have sharper picture.

How and where Can I Buy a Cheap LCD Television?

Time is definitely on your side when buying an LCD TV (and a plasma) because prices are falling steadily. You can expect at least a 20% price drop over the next year. In fact a war over market share is hotting up so we’ll probably see a bigger than 20% price drop.

In addition, some of the bigger manufacturers - Sony, Sharp, Samsung are moving up from 32 inch screens as their standard size to 40 - 42 inch, so you’ll probably also get a bigger screen too.

To get a good deal on an LCD television first get familiar with the various models at your local electronics and discount stores. make sure you watch the pictures for a while with both DVDs and normal TV signals.

After you get a good idea of what you like about the different TVs and what’s available, you can then go online and check prices and ratings at a comparison shopping site such as consumersearch.com, cnet.com, bizrate.com etc.

You can compare various LCD TV prices, see which stores are reputable and give good service You can also get detailed product information, ratings by experts, consumer reviews by people who know best because they actually own the product.

Narrow down your preference to no more than 2 or 3 specific models and then do a final search online and check out your local sales and discount warehouses. This is the best way to save money on items like LCD TVs.

Remember to look at a few TVs in person to get clear on what you want (there are differences between TVs), then comparison shop online to find out the best street price and then make the final push for a deal by calling or emailing a few places and asking for their best price!

Good shopping!

Samsung also claim (they would) that the HD TV offers better video reproduction, viewing angle and image quality. One reason is the video signal is reproduced at 120Hz, compared to 60Hz for a conventional full HD LCD panel. This helps rapidly moving video images to be reproduced with high clarity, which has been one of the drawbacks with LCD TVs.

The supersized flat panel has full high-definition resolution of 1080p and Samsung claim a conical viewing angle of 180 degrees.

The queue for delivery will be a long one - expect circa mid 2007 availability - as Samsung will begin producing the 70in LCD TV during the first half of 2007.

No doubt before then, one of the other LCD TV manufacturers will announce a bigger panel.

Sony has been blitzing the market with advertising for its Bravia range of LCD TVs. The big campaign has paid off because Sony’s LCD TV revenue for the first 3 months of 2006 grew to 15 percent of the market, pushing Samsung with 13.9 percent into 2nd place and Sharp with 12.7 percent into 3rd. Philips was just behind Sharp with 11.9 percent.

Most impressively sales revenue for these 3 months was five-times what it sold during the same period just a year ago and it sold 3.5 times as many TVs. (Note that Sony is still working to get its TV division back to overall profitability after it made a slow start in the LCD TV market).

Samsung made good progress with sales of its TV panels growing by 30 percent. The move to larger TVs was demonstrated by sales of 40-inch and larger screens growing by 90 percent over the previous 3 months.

Sharp also continues to do well. Its target is to sell 6 million LCD TVs worldwide during its 2006 financial year, with the goal of winning 30 percent market share for 40-inch TVs during the U.S. Christmas shopping season.

Sharp claims to have sold nearly 1.13 million LCD TVs worldwide during the 3 months April-June 2006. This is an increase of 50 percent from 755,000 LCD TVs it sold during the same period in 2005.

Keep up to date with the latestSony LCD TV and Sharp LCD TV news at www.lcdtvcenter.com

Magnavox is actually owned by Philips and is their house “value brand”. Philips is in the leading pack of LCD TVs manufacturers and their TVs are usually at the cutting edge. They have been particularly innovative for example with their image processing software - PixelPlus and PixelPlus2, which delivers amazingly clear images with the right input signal.

So, in theory if you buy a Magnavox LCD TV, you should get a solid performing, if unspectactular unit. It looks like one thing to watch out for is repair and warranty costs. Read the fine print and make sure that you understand the terms - what is the duration and exactly what is covered e.g. part and labour?

Your best approach is probably to negotiate an extended warranty as part of a packageat the time you buy it.

Get the latest LCD TV reviews at www.lcdtvcenter.com

LG Philips is the joint venture between LG and Philips.

Note that these figures are always a bit “rubbery” and will vary from market researcher to another.

The top 6 manufacturerers were as follows.

#1 LG Philips 22.3% share and 2,353,000 TVs shipped

#2 Samsung 20% share and 2,115,000 TVs shipped

#3 CMO (Chi Moi) 18.7% share and 1,979,000 TVs shipped

#4 AU Optronics 16.8% share and 1,493,000 TVs shipped

#5 Sharp 13.9% share and 1,505,000 TVs shipped

#6 Quanta 3.7% share and 360,000 TVs shipped

Sharp was previously reported as the #1 manufacturer for the whole of 2005 so clearly the others have accelerated their shipments in the later part of 2005 and early 2006 to overtake Sharp.

Also, of the top 6, three are suppliers to other LCD TV vendors. Many of these vendors will be the “value brands” who brand engineer their LCD TVs and release them under their own brand name.

Find out the latest about LCD TV news at www.lcdtvcenter.com

Exact market share figures are hard to come by. The general consensus right now is that in terms of 2005 shipment volume Sharp was slightly ahead of Philips, and then Samsung and Sony came next.

However, Samsung and Sony are selling more LCD TVs in the larger sizes so their shipment value is much closer to Sharp and Philips.

Sharp now manufacture LCD TVs in a number of locations - Japan, China and Johor (Kuala Lumpur). Sharp will also begin production of LCD screens at its Kameyama, Japan, plant shortly and will begin manufacture at its LCD module plant in Poland in January 2007.

Sony registered a sales growth spurt in the last 6-9 months and some market research indicates they overtook Sharp in shipment volume in the last quarter of 2005 or the first quarter of 2006.

This is due to a massive advertising campaign for their Bravia LCD TVs accompanied by much more competitive pricing.

LCD TV sales growth is also being helped by the introduction of digital broadcasting around the world. The high definition format is well supported by LCD TVs and gives much better pictures than traditional analogue broadcasts.

Overall the LCD TV market is growing very fast - shipments worldwide were up 135% compared with the same time last year.

Get the latest on Sharp LCD TV at www.lcdtvcenter.com

In 2006 Acer is targeting to sell around 350,000 LCD TVs and expects LCD TVs to become one of its major businesses in the future. The target is an extra $1 billion in product sales for Acer during 2007 if the company reaches its LCD TV goal.

Acer will extend its LCD TV range with TVs up to 42 inches in size by the end of 2006 and expects to put out a 47-inch model in 2007 assuming the price of components continues to comes down.

Acer has carefully researched its LCD TV product line. Along the way it has found out that people in different regions prefer different levels of color saturation and shading.

As a result, Acer now adjusts the picture color according to which market the LCD TV is headed for.

LCD TV Market Continues to Grow
iSuppli market research forecasts that LCD TVs will overtake traditional CRT TVs as the dominant technology by 2009, thanks to ongoing price reductions and increasing consumer acceptance. The market researcher has set its latest forecast for LCD TV panel production in 2006 to 46.7 million units.

Find out more about Acer LCD TVs at www.lcdtvcenter.com

Once you decide that you?re ready for a large-screen TV, you quickly discover that you only really have two main options ? a plasma TV or an LCD TV. Plasma TVs were first on the scene, but the recent mass production of LCD TVs by major manufactures has put LCD TVs pretty much on equal footing with plasmas. That said, you will still have to make a choice.

If you?re like most people, you not only have no idea how the two differ, you don?t even know the areas you should be considering in order to determine how they differ. But they do indeed differ, and knowing the difference is extremely important if you?re going to get the TV that?s right for you.

You can essentially boil the differences between plasmas and LCDs into twelve basic points. In some areas, plasmas will win out. In other areas, LCDs will win out. In yet other areas, it will depend on your own personal taste in order to decide who wins out.

The twelve ways plasma TVs and LCD TVs differ are the following:

1. The first is a technical issue, and may seem a little boring, but it really does affect other areas. Plasmas TVs are made of chemical compounds called phosphors. LCD TVs use millions of liquid crystals.

2. The next section is related to how big the TVs are and the availability of larger sizes. You have a wider selection of larger-size TVs with plasmas (though LCDs are catching up).

3. The next section is ?small size,? which is also important. Plasmas don’t come in smaller sizes, which you will need for places like the kitchen.

4. Next is viewing angle. Plasmas tend to have a wider viewing angle (though, again, LCDs are catching up).

5. Although the manufacturers may not like to admit it, each ?can? suffer from certain problems. Plasmas can suffer from burn-in effect; LCDs don’t.

6. Another problem area, but for LCDs, is ?delay.? LCDs can produce a jagged figure when in motion. Plasmas tend to do better. HDTV improves this dramatically for both.

7. The next area is life span. You can replace the light source with an LCD, thereby bringing your original picture back. With plasmas you can’t.

8. In the next few sections, the theme of ?picture quality? is considered. First, color: LCDs produce sharp, lively colors. Plasmas produce warmer and more accurate colors.

9. Next is brightness levels and the TVs ability to handle different lighting. LCDs tend to do better in bright-light conditions.

10. Also related to picture quality is ?black levels.? Plasmas tend to produce blacker blacks.

11. Another area to consider is contrast range. Plasmas, “technically,” produce a higher contrast range.

12. Last, and certainly not least, is price. At the moment, plasmas tend to run a little cheaper, but this is changing rapidly as LCDs flood into the market. By the time you read this, in fact, there may be no difference at all.

Essentially, which one is right for you will all comes down to taste: What potential negatives will you not really notice? What positives do you want more of? What do you really want the TV for ? movies, sports, news, regular TV shows? Both plasmas and LCDs have strong advocates in their corners. Both have deliriously happy customers. But those happy customers are only happy because they knew what they wanted before they made their purchase. If you want to make the right choice, you?ll have to decide what it is you want and which of the two TVs can best give you that.

–About–

Plasma vs. LCD TVs: To learn more about these two technologies and how your own personal tastes and viewing habits will affect your choice, read the full report at http://www.plasma-vs-lcd.com. You might also be surprised to learn that plasma TVs are like peanut butter and LCD TVs are like jelly. Yes, really. Read the report.

Source: ArticleTrader.com