WitsView's December FHD TV Street Price Survey: FHD prices falling faster than HD modelst

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2008-01-15 18:08

Taiwan--(뉴스와이어)--According to WitsView's December FHD TV Street Price survey, prices for the 32~46" FHD models slipped more evidently than their HD counterparts, narrowing the price gap between the two.

Currently, the average price of the 32" FHD model stood at USD 842, down USD 101 from November's USD 943. Meanwhile, for the HD models, it reached USD 792, slipping below the USD 800 level for the first time. Some of the FHD products saw a bigger drop than others during December. For example, in the U.S. market, Sharp's LC-32GP1U was sold for USD 1,179 in November. However, in December, it could be bought for USD 900. Sharp's 32" FHD models are currently available only in the Japan and US regions. However, local manufacturers such as Hisense, Xoceco and Skyworth have also rolled out such products in China.

In the FHD 37" segment, they were retailed at an average of USD 1,205, down MoM by 6%. By contrast, the HD models were up by 1.3% from USD 1,065 to USD 1,079. The price gap between the two narrowed from USD 217 in November to USD 126 in December. A large gap was witnessed in the Japan market (the largest was seen in Taiwan). However, the 37" FHD TV sets in Japan accounted for 63.2% of all 37" models, resulting in a much higher market penetration rate than other areas. The 37" product line up of Sharp, Hitachi, and Panasonic were all FHD.

The average price of the 40" FHD model reached USD 1,935, down by USD 157 from November's USD 2,092. Meanwhile, the HD sets hit USD 1,296, up sequentially by USD 34. In the Japan market, the 40" FHD was 24% more expensive than the HD sets. In other Asian regions, which included Korea, China and Taiwan, the ratio exceeded 50%. Meanwhile, in the US and UK regions, the price premium respectively reached 48% and 38%. The huge decline in the 40" FHD was strongly related to Sony's drastic price cuts during December. Sony's V3000 and W5000 series slipped by 24000~30000 Yen in Japan. Separately, in the Korea region, the W series also saw a decline of 200~230 thousand Korean Won. Finally, in the UK, they fell by 172 pounds.

For the 42", it dropped by USD 59 to USD 1,536. The lowest price was seen in the US (USD 1,231), while the highest was found in Japan (USD 1,788). The average price for the HD models reached USD 1,333, down slightly by 1.1%. The decline was smaller than the 3.7% drop in the FHD segment. In our surveyed regions, the Japan market was the only area where the price of the 42" FHD models was higher than the 40", resulting in a price difference of USD 103.

The average price for the 46" reached USD 2,543, down 3.3% MoM. In light of the higher tariffs for imported TV sets in Europe, the FHD models in the UK stood at USD 2,211, which was cheaper than the USD 2,020 price tag in the US (Europe tariff rate: 14%; US tariff rate: 5%). However, in terms of the HD sets, UK models were 52.8% higher than the USD 1,413 retail price in the US (a premium of USD 747). The most expensive 46" sets were found in Taiwan and Korea, requiring more than USD 3,200.

Based on WitsView's observation, in the 32~46" category, the FHD models experienced a price change between 3.3%~10.7%, equivalent to an average drop of 6.24%. By contrast, most of the HD products only slightly trended downwards. Some of the sizes, which included the 37" and 40" even saw a small price increase. It can be seen that the price declines in the FHD group was faster, resulting in the price gap between the HD segment to grow closer. In comparing the FHD and HD price of each respective size, the smallest difference was surprisingly seen in the 32" (6.3%)---an indication that in terms of choosing a FHD TV or a set with a larger display size (37"), most consumers seem to opt for the latter.

WitsView provides a monthly analysis of the HD and FHD retail prices covering the 32~46" LCD TVs, along with the 42"/50" PDP TV of major global markets. Information includes changes in the retail price, price premium of FHD models and their market penetration rate. For further information, please visit http://www.witsview.com.

웹사이트: http://www.witsview.com