Prices for LCD and plasma TV screens continue to plummet as the industry continues to suffer from over supply, says US researcher DisplaySearch. It has monitored retail and online (etail) pricing and points to an average fall in prices of 22% for LCD TVs around the world against prices a year ago.
The bigger the TV set, the bigger the fall apparently with 52 inch TV sets falling 30% in the US to an average of $1,951, a drop of around $850 over the year, and down 36% to $2,512 in Europe (how come we buy just as many but pay so much more?).
In Japan prices remain the highest despite most devices being manufactured by Japanese or Korean owned companies, and the largest drop in prices in Japan over the year has been only 12% for 52 inch and 32 inch LCD TVs.
The average price fall across all regions for Plasma Display Panel (PDP) TVs was a far more severe 27% year on year, while alarmingly plain old Cathode Ray Tube TV pricing has gone up by 4%. LCD and Plasma TV sets cost 2.5 to 2.8 times their same sized CRT equivalents.
As the US recession bites deeper and spreads to other countries, expect these premium devices to stall in sales, provoking factory layoffs throughout the Asia Pacific and driving sales further and further down, closer to CRT pricing over the coming 3 to 6 months, during which we would expect the rate of price decrease to accelerate even faster.