~37" LCD prices in a year? (1 Viewer)

[Kenneth Harden]

I have been salivating over some of the larger LCD TV's (like the 37" Sharp we have at work), but at a retail price of $5500, it is a distant fantacy.

In a year from now, do you think the prices will be much lower? I know large LCD panels are very new to the mass market, and obviously prices are high, but do you expect them to fall anytime soon?

I want LCD over plasma because I play lots of video games, and I want something that is more durable and lasts longer.

My 27" JVC is just lame

 

[Shane Martin]

I bet they come down a little but not that much. If anything I suspect we won't see a price drop on LCD's until OLED becomes a bigger deal. This unless Sharp starts to really push them lower and lower and then who knows. I know they really want to sell their 1080P panels.

 

[andrew markworthy]

I suspect that the prices will continue to plummet. Think of the example of calculators, digital watches, home computers, DVD players. All started as rich people's status objects, then they became available to the better-off technofan, and once that market was cracked, they then dropped further in price until they were commonplace. To take a specific instance. The first time I saw a digital watch was in a James Bond movie. I remember the collective appreciative 'ooh' from the audience when it was shown (and really to date this experience, it was one of the early models where you had to press a button to show the time). When I passed my O levels (UK school exams taken at sixteen) a couple of years later, my parents bought me a digital watch, which cost ... 35 pounds (big money back then). A couple of years later, the joke in Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy about humans being so primitive, they still think digital watches are a neat idea still had relevance. Now - well, can you imagine anyone getting excited over a digital watch?

So why should thin screens not follow the trend? They are very attractive to nearly everyone. Sure, we on HTF might like them because of picture quality, but bear in mind that outside our hermetic little world of techno geekdom, a lot of people are concerned with what a TV looks like when switched off as well as when it's switched on. Plus, they're far lighter and can be moved around (i.e. not some heavy monolith domnating the room and doomed to stay in one position for evermore). And being smaller, they have a huge appeal for people in smaller rooms (bear in mind that North America is the exception, not the rule with regard to room sizes). There is thus an obvious worldwide market. Hence why there are new factories manufactuting LCDs springing up all the time and this will inevitably reduce prices, following the inevitable laws of supply and demand. In addition, it's in the manufacturers' interests to see costs drop. At the moment, thin screens are a still a luxury item. Joe Sixpack replacing his TV won't buy a thin screen - they're too expensive (though he'd like one). Bring down the price and the increase in sales will more than offset the drop in revenue per set sold.

In the meantime, you could try moving closer to the screen if you want the picture to occupy more of your field of view.. We 'only' have a 27". but it's in a small room and is more than adequate.

 

[Mike Boniferro]

Sharp has projected an approximately 10% drop in LCD panels over the next year. Now this may be a little bit of a low estimate, since if they start telling people that they are going to plummet, then nobody would buy right now.

But they have just recently opened a HUGE manufacturing facility (about 3 million square feet) that can pump panels out at a previously unheard of rate, so that should do a lot to satisfy demand at the lower price points.

 

[Kenneth Harden]

Mike:

Great info! That is the sort of thing that is good to hear!

 

[Kenneth Harden]

Mike:

Great info! That is the sort of thing that is good to hear!

Andrew:

Good point!

 

[Will_B]

People thought when Dell announced they'd enter the LCD monitor business that prices would drop. But they didn't...

Sharp's Aquos 30" LC-30HV4U and Dell's new 30" W301YR were both originally NOT competing with each other -- Sharp's was the clear winner at a price of about $2,250 compared to Dell's $2,500. Which struck everyone as odd, since Dell's product was new, and you'd expect that they'd have checked prices and undercut Sharp's price.

Evidently Dell has just now realized that the Sharp was beating them so they've finally "joined the battle," with Dell now undercutting the Sharp...Dell repricing theirs at a cool $2000 ("sale" price).

So hopefully Sharp and Dell will continue to wage war and break the price down more.

I don't know if this 30" battle will affect the 37"s, but I thought I'd mention it since I've been price-checking the Sharp Aquos 30" LC-30HV4U every couple weeks for a few months now, waiting for it to come down.

Update: Sharp has reduced their LC-30HV4U price to $1,899.99! The battle is joined!