welsh
Junkmaster
OK, we have talked about electronic toys in the past, so I figured it might be cool to start a regular thread here.
First up Flat Screen TVs- who is planning to get one soon? Do you think they are too expensive? Why do you want one (besides the fact that they look pretty freaking cool).
Economist comments?
lat-panel televisions
Thin screens, fat margins
Dec 18th 2003
From The Economist print edition
What is behind the sudden mania for flat-panel televisions?
IF YOU are thinking of buying a flat-panel television, you are not alone. Along with Apple's iPod music player and a robot vacuum-cleaner called the Roomba, flat-panel TVs just a few inches thick (as opposed to much fatter “flat-screen” TVs based on conventional cathode-ray tubes) are generating a buzz among tech-savvy holiday shoppers. Today's flat mania, says Scott McGregor, the boss of Philips Semiconductors, is “completely irrational” since a conventional TV can produce just as good an image at a fraction of the price. Not that Mr McGregor minds. His firm's joint venture with LG of South Korea is the world's leading maker of liquid-crystal displays (LCDs), the technology used in most flat-panel TVs.
In part, says Riddhi Patel of iSuppli, a market-research firm, the sudden rise of flat-panel TVs is driven by the popularity of DVD players, games consoles and digital cable, all of which produce clear, sharp images that look particularly good on a big screen. Flat-panel screens are stylish and do not take up that much room. And they have geek appeal. As Pip Coburn, an analyst at UBS, puts it: “Getting a flat-panel TV today is as exhilarating as getting a desktop computer 15 years ago—if you can remember what that was like.”
But the main reason for the sudden emergence of flat-panel TVs is that manufacturers smell a lucrative new market. As LCD screens in both desktop and laptop computers have become commonplace, margins have diminished. Televisions, however, use large LCD panels which cost more to make but command far higher margins.
New entrants and established firms such as Motorola and Westinghouse, both of which stopped making TVs decades ago, are now piling in. So too are computer makers such as Dell and Gateway, which already sell LCD computer monitors and are attracted by the fatter margins in consumer electronics. By selling direct over the internet, rather than through high-street stores, PC makers can undercut traditional consumer-electronics firms, says Ms Patel. A 30-inch flat-panel TV from Sony costs $3,999, whereas Dell's costs $2,999.
Flat-panel TVs will account for just 3% of the 160m televisions sold this year, reckons iSuppli, rising to 8% by 2005. This is still an “early adopter” phenomenon. But as more suppliers enter the market and new factories come on stream, Ms Patel expects prices to fall by 40% over the next year. Bear that in mind before you buy.
First up Flat Screen TVs- who is planning to get one soon? Do you think they are too expensive? Why do you want one (besides the fact that they look pretty freaking cool).
Economist comments?
lat-panel televisions
Thin screens, fat margins
Dec 18th 2003
From The Economist print edition
What is behind the sudden mania for flat-panel televisions?
IF YOU are thinking of buying a flat-panel television, you are not alone. Along with Apple's iPod music player and a robot vacuum-cleaner called the Roomba, flat-panel TVs just a few inches thick (as opposed to much fatter “flat-screen” TVs based on conventional cathode-ray tubes) are generating a buzz among tech-savvy holiday shoppers. Today's flat mania, says Scott McGregor, the boss of Philips Semiconductors, is “completely irrational” since a conventional TV can produce just as good an image at a fraction of the price. Not that Mr McGregor minds. His firm's joint venture with LG of South Korea is the world's leading maker of liquid-crystal displays (LCDs), the technology used in most flat-panel TVs.
In part, says Riddhi Patel of iSuppli, a market-research firm, the sudden rise of flat-panel TVs is driven by the popularity of DVD players, games consoles and digital cable, all of which produce clear, sharp images that look particularly good on a big screen. Flat-panel screens are stylish and do not take up that much room. And they have geek appeal. As Pip Coburn, an analyst at UBS, puts it: “Getting a flat-panel TV today is as exhilarating as getting a desktop computer 15 years ago—if you can remember what that was like.”
But the main reason for the sudden emergence of flat-panel TVs is that manufacturers smell a lucrative new market. As LCD screens in both desktop and laptop computers have become commonplace, margins have diminished. Televisions, however, use large LCD panels which cost more to make but command far higher margins.
New entrants and established firms such as Motorola and Westinghouse, both of which stopped making TVs decades ago, are now piling in. So too are computer makers such as Dell and Gateway, which already sell LCD computer monitors and are attracted by the fatter margins in consumer electronics. By selling direct over the internet, rather than through high-street stores, PC makers can undercut traditional consumer-electronics firms, says Ms Patel. A 30-inch flat-panel TV from Sony costs $3,999, whereas Dell's costs $2,999.
Flat-panel TVs will account for just 3% of the 160m televisions sold this year, reckons iSuppli, rising to 8% by 2005. This is still an “early adopter” phenomenon. But as more suppliers enter the market and new factories come on stream, Ms Patel expects prices to fall by 40% over the next year. Bear that in mind before you buy.
