PriceSCAN Blog

Consider, for example, two popular 42 inch models: the Sony-KDL-42XBR950, an LCD set that has fallen 30% it was released back in February, or the Panasonic TH-42PD25U/P, a plasma off more than 33% since the middle of June. If you've waited to buy, you're already a winner in the pre-holiday price drop derby.

LCDs may come under greater price pressure yet. Screen manufacturers in Asia – Samsung, LG, and others – have been under-cutting each other in a vicious cycle, but firms that integrate the panels into television sets, such as Panasonic, Zenith and Sony, have been loathe to cut prices quickly. The same goes for retailers. However, this strategy of keeping prices artificially high to preserve profits has the effect of preventing the LCD from becoming a true mass-market technology, especially in the face of declining plasma and rear projection prices (and some feel these later screens have significant advantages over LCDs, including lack of so-called ghost images, availability of sizes greater than 40 inches, etc.). When there's an unfilled potential demand at the mass-market level, and price competition from other technologies as well, sooner or later someone cuts prices to stay competitive, meet that demand and make up the smaller profits per unit by selling greater volume. So as much as LCD prices have dropped already, the fall is not over. Look for more declines as we move into 2005, and for flat screens of all three technological stripes to make more headway against traditional CRT televisions.