Street price survey for North American budget models: Price increases seen in most LCD TV sizes in Dec'07

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2008-01-08 17:43

Taiwan--(뉴스와이어)--Based on WitsView's survey on budget LCD TVs, which covered the first 25% of the cheapest models in the North American region, excluding the 42" and 46", the remaining mainstream sizes all experienced a price increase.

In the North American market, the cheaper 32" models were available for USD 552 in Dec07, up sharply by 7.8% MoM. Meanwhile, for the 37", the average prices reached USD 627, up by USD 14 MoM. The budget 32/37" models were mostly offered by Tier 2 brand makers, such as Olevia, ViewSonic and Vizio. However, a few low-end models from well-known international brands were seen as well. For example, in the 32" class, Sharp's LC32D41U and Toshiba's 32HL67 were sold for less than USD 600.

In the 40/42" category, the average price respectively reached USD 1,035 and 848. The smaller sized 40" was USD 187 more expensive than the 42". This marks the second straight month for the 40" to experience an increase, which was up sequentially by USD 70. By contrast, the 42" was down by USD 35. Compared to the the 32/37" class, which was composed mostly of Tier 2 brand makers, most of the budget 40" models carried the Samsung brand. For example, the price of the LN-T4042H, LN-S4051D and LNS-4092D were all below USD 1,100. Like the 32/37", the 42" models were mainly offered by the likes of Vizio, Olevia, and Westinghouse. Prices of Vizio and Olevia's TV products were all below USD 800.

In the 46/47" category, the price gap between the two sizes was less than USD 20. For the 46", it stood at USD 1,280, while for the 47", it reached USD 1,301. Tier 2 brand makers did not account for a large portion of the 46" class. However, competition was rife between the Tier 2 Full HD models and Tier 1 HD sets in the 46" segment. For example, Polaroid's 4641-TLXB and Sceptre's X46BVFullHD both employed Full HD panels. Separately, many Tier 2 brands, such as Vizio and Westinghouse, have chosen the 47" over the 46" for their product lineup.

According to WitsView's observation, although the average LCD TV retail price in December trended downwards, it was the opposite in the North America region. This can be attributed to 2 main reasons. First, as the budget TV products are mainly produced by the Tier 2 brands, they have been more susceptible to the panel supply shortage. Second, larger price variations were seen in the lower-end models during the year-end Christmas sales season, as they were a key focus in the retailers' TV sales promotions. Although both November and December are considered the key sales promotion period, some of the retail prices during December had already returned to levels before the promotions began. Thus, many of the budget TVs in the North America region was seen trending upwards.

WitsView provides a monthly analysis of the FPD retail price covering major global markets. In addition, in order to allow our clients to better understand how to formulate their business strategies, WitsView also monitors the price changes of TV products ranging from the high-end to low-end segment. For further information, please visit http://www.witsview.com

웹사이트: http://www.witsview.com