With the retail price for some 32-inch flat-panel television models dropping to around US$1,000 in the fourth quarter, the pressure is on for big-name brands to follow suit, market researcher WitsView Technology Corp (
The downtrend in the fourth quarter of last year extended to the first quarter of this year as the latest survey from WitsView showed, with the retail price of large-screen liquid-crystal-display (LCD) TVs falling between 7 percent and 17.7 percent from a quarter earlier.
"For the first time, the 32-inch model slipped below the US$1,000 level. This marks a significant change," WitsView said in a report released over the weekend.
The level is generally believed to mark a phase of booming demand for LCD TVs, as historical records show that this transition occurs when the price of new-generation TVs falls to a level equal to 2.5 times that of an older model.
It would therefore be interesting to see when top brands, such as Sony Corp, cut the price of their US$1,300 high-end 32-inch models to cater to the growing demand, WitsView said.
Demand for LCD TVs is expected to grow 52 percent year-on-year to 82 million units this year, as falling prices spur demand, DisplaySearch said.
US consumers can buy a Samsung 32-inch LCD TV for only US$848 at Wal-Mart, while a second-tier model is only US$500, the market researcher said.
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