New Technology TV

One of the interesting things about television technology is how it effects the market that it's sold to and how that market in turn effects it. For example- contrary to the popular notion of how supply and demand are supposed to work- an increase in demand for electronics often leads to decreasing prices in the long run. That's because, the fact that more people are buying those electronics means that more money is available to go into research and design. More R&D money in turn means more efficient manufacturing processes which lower the costs. That said, normal economic wisdom can still hold true in the consumer electronics market in some cases. For example, it was recently reported that many manufacturers over estimated the public demand for LCD TVs. In this case, we can expect to see a glut of LCD displays on the market in the coming months which retailers will have to sell at abnormally low prices to move them out of inventory. On the other hand, Samsung is anticipating a shortage of LCD HDTV screens on the market at the beginning of 2007 and possibly throughout the year. This is expected to stem the decrease in price that we'll likely see at the end of this year if there is in fact a glut of LCD screens on the market before the shortage.

Another factor that can drive down the prices of electronics is the competition among retailers for market share. One great example that we can expect to witness in the immediate future will come as a result of Wal-Mart's recent push to lower the prices of consumer electronics across the board. Wal-Mart recently announced that it will drop prices on much of its stock of electronics for the holiday season. The most dramatic drop in prices can be seen among Plasma screen TVs and LCD screens. For example Wal-Mart is selling a forty two inch Plasma TV set that normally retails for about one thousand seven hundred dollars at a mere one thousand two hundred and ninety four dollars. A thirty seven inch LCD HDTV set made by Polaroid is selling for under a thousand dollars at Wal-Mart even though it costs thirteen hundred dollars elsewhere. There's also a thirty two inch LCD HDTV screen made by RCA that generally retails for about a thousand dollars, but is being sold at Wal-Mart for less than eight hundred and fifty dollars.

Wal-Mart isn't limiting itself just to television sets though. For example, a Toshiba HD-DVD player that normally sells for about five hundred dollars is being sold by Wal-Mart for four hundred and forty eighty dollars. A Blu-ray player made by Phillips that normally costs about one thousand dollars is on sale for less than nine hundred.

Wal-Mart isn't the only retailer that's cutting the cost of consumer electronics. Amazon recently reduced the price of a Blu-ray player to the point where it's now hundreds of dollars below retail.

While there is supposed to be a glut of LCD screens on the market, because the price cuts effect a much wider variety of electronics, it's more likely that they are the result of retailers trying to get a competitive edge on each other for the holiday season, rather than actual supply and demand type market pressures.