Blackfriars' Marketing

Monday, October 09, 2006

Plasma pricing precipice follow-up

No sooner did I write about the flat-panel TV plasma pricing precipice, part II, than Circuit City advertised on Sunday that it would sell a variety of off-brand 50-inch plasma panels for $1899 at its stores this weekend. It's feeling like plasma panel prices will fall nearly 30% again this year. Kind of amazing, since they did that last year as well.

Remember that the PC marketing really got going when PCs fell below $1,000. Don't be surprised to see much more large scale consumer adoption as HDTV 42-inch panels fall below that magical pricing point as well. When will we see that happen? I'm sure we'll see some isolated sale prices in that range next month on Black Friday (November 24th this year, the Friday after Thanksgiving here in the US). But I predict that 2007 will be the year of that price becoming routine at US retailers.

Of course, for those really wanting to go flat for less than $1,000 now, there are always EDTV panels, which are already in that vicinity. But no matter whether its EDTV or HDTV, the future of TV looks flat.








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