TV prices to plunge for holiday
An oversupply of LCD TV panels is causing television prices to fall right in time for the holiday shopping season.
According to DisplaySearch, the tailspin will start in October: In the last three months of the year, the firm forecasts that prices will keep falling until they bottom out at 12 percent below 2009 levels. In some blowout sales, the price slash could be even more dramatic.
The forecasted price plunge stems from an enormous surplus of LCD panels that has accumulated over the first nine months of the year. Shipments of the panels rose to 52 million in the second quarter, but only 38.7 million TVs were actually shipped to retailers, according to iSuppli. That 36 percent inventory gap piles on top of a 25 percent oversupply in the first quarter.
"Manufacturers were playing a game of chicken, hoping demand would be there," said Paul Gagnon, director of TV research at DisplaySearch. "Only recently did they come to the shocking realization that prices needed to fall. That will have a good impact on holiday sales."
But consumers should act fast. The supply chain is beginning to correct itself, iSuppli found. Those kinds of recalibrations generally take about three months to be realized at the retail level. That means prices will likely bottom out at the end of this year or the beginning of 2011.
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