Global liquid-crystal-display (LCD) television sales are expected to surge by over 70 percent next year because price-conscious consumers will be more willing to replace their bulky TVs with stylish LCD sets, an international market researcher said yesterday.
But slim-screen TVs are still too pricey to play a primary role for most families before 2007, when prices for 40-inch sets for living rooms are expected to drop to a reasonable range, said Bob O'Donnell, a technology analyst at International Data Corp (IDC) in Taipei.
Prior to that booming period for large-sized sets, LCD TV sales are still expected to spike at 13.8 million units, with most growth coming from 30-inch or smaller TVs, from the less than 8 million units IDC predicted for 2004, according to O'Donnell's latest projection.
"Price is an important factor for people choosing a secondary TV for kitchens or bedrooms.
"And constantly falling pri-ces will fuel the demand next year," the IDC analyst told reporters.
Next year, prices for 30-inch or smaller LCD TVs are expected to creep downward to close to US$1,000, the high end of the price range consumers find acceptable, compared to around US$2,000 per unit this year, according to IDC's research.
But prices for 40-inch LCD TVs, a favorite size for living rooms, are still too high, O'Donnell said.
Plasma-display panel (PDP) TVs, with the most popular size holding at 42 inches, will continue to dominate the market for large-sized TVs in coming years, he said.
Global PDP TV sales are expected to enjoy growth of 72 percent to 3.8 million units next year, compared with 2.2 million units for this year, O'Donnell said.
Commenting on Taiwan's TV brands, O'Donnell said that BenQ Corp (明基電通) and Optoma Corp (奧圖碼科技) will have a good chance to vie for a slice of the thriving flat-screen TV market.
Optoma is a fully-owned rear-projection TV vendor of consumer electronics maker Coretronic Corp (
Local TV household names Tatung Co (
With increasing numbers of players following Dell Inc and Hewlett-Packard Co into the flat-screen TV market, O'Donnell said that he expected the next two years would be a rough-and-tumble period for the industry.
"Some second-tier companies will be forced out of the market. There will be more mergers or acquisitions," he said.
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