LCD Prices Fall Below Plasma In 40”-44” HDTV Segment In July

LCDs take 57% share of 30” and larger display market

September 19, 2006

Pacific Media Associates, the global market information experts on large-screen displays, reports that in July the average street price for 40” to 44” LCD flat panel televisions and business displays in North America dropped below those for high-definition plasma displays for the first time in the history of the company’s “Flat Panel Display Tracking Service.” Not long ago, this size range was seen as being owned by plasma, because LCD models cost much more. Now that LCDs cost less on average, their share of sales is growing rapidly. In July, LCDs in this size gained 4 share points to reach a 46% unit market share. This trend is likely to continue, pushing plasma’s dominant range up into the larger sizes of 50” and above. “We’ve seen this repeatedly in the past,“ according to Rosemary Abowd, Vice President with Pacific Media Associates. “When the price of LCDs match or drop below the prices for plasma HDTVs of the same size, LCDs win. We expect that LCDs will account for the majority of unit sales in the 40” to 44” range soon.” Across all flat panels 30” or larger, LCDs gained another 3 share points for a 57% unit market share. Unit sales for flat panels were down 10% in July over the previous month, which is similar to the summer slowdown seen in prior years. Unit sales were still up 67% over July 2005. Sales are expected to increase again as the football season and holiday buying season arrive. Competition for the top spot in unit sales is very tight; Sony’s 20.3% share was just one percentage point ahead of second place Panasonic, and Samsung was a close third. The Pioneer PRO-1130HD 50” plasma HDTV remained in first place on the best-seller list for the second month in a row. Note: Data cited here is based on a sample of retailers and resellers, and is subject to sampling error. About Pacific Media Associates Pacific Media specializes in global display market information, covering all large-screen display categories: front projectors, plasma and LCD TVs, and rear-projection displays. Their Large-Screen Displays Industry Service family of publications provides detailed worldwide quarterly updates (sell-in data and forecasts) on large-screen display markets, newsletters on new products and other key industry developments, monthly advertised price tracking, ad hoc analyses, and annual Web surveys of North American end users (including organizations and individual consumers) and both North American and EMEA resellers/retailers. Their Large-Screen Displays Tracking Service family of monthly reports offers timely sell-through data and analysis on unit sales, true volume-weighted street prices, and inventories of large-screen displays sold by leading North American retailers, resellers, and distributors. Pacific Media Associates was established by Dr. William Coggshall, who was previously a co-founder of Dataquest and helped start the syndicated high-tech market information business.

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