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Demand for large-screen TVs surging

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 (聯景科技) said.

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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