40-44" PDP-TV Price Drop Dominated by
Brick and Mortar Channel

Prices for 40-44" PDP-TVs in the "Brick and Mortar" channel group declined by 4.54% in May, down $104 from and Average retail price (ARP) in April of $2,470 to $2,358 on May. The "Brick and Mortar" is one of four channel groups tracked in Insight Media's HDTV Retailer newsletter each month. The "Specialty" retailer groups showed and even larger decline, but with about 70% of actual sales going through the "Brick and Mortar" channel, we are paying more attention to this channel activities.

The Table below shows the brands and the ARP in the three sub-channels that comprise the Brick and Mortar CE channel group. Data for April is on the left and for May on the right. This data shows there were brand changes and general price reductions in the last month.

For example, in the CE & IT channel, Panasonic dropped out of the May data, but this was only one model in the April data. In CE & Other, Samsung was added but only with one model, while in the CE channel group, Maxent was added with two new models on sale at Best Buy. All of these moves have very little impact on the changes is pricing.

Looking more carefully at the pricing data, we find the major brands are driving the price reductions, with Pioneer and Samsung leading in the CE & IT channel and Samsung, LG and Philips leading in the CE channel. This is shown in the second and third Tables.

Curiously, Panasonic and Pioneer showed price increases in the CE channel. This explained by noting that ElectronicExpress added the Pioneer PRO-930HD for $4498, accounting for the big jump as there were only two models for May. With Panasonic, ElectronicExpress also added a relatively expensive new model in May, the TH-42PX25 for $2,498. Otherwise, pricing for the popular TH-42PD50 declined from $1,890 to $1,834.

HDTV Retailer is a subscription-based newsletter published by Insight Media every month. It contains 20-30 pages of news, commentary and analysis on HDTV markets, HDTV products (LCD, PDP and MDTV) plus news about the retail channel. 10-15 pages are devoted to our in-store retailer survey, analysis of retailing and commentary by retailing experts. Another 40-50 pages are devoted to providing pricing data and trend analysis for HDTV products.

For a review of the Table of Contents from the May issue, go to:

http://www.insightmedia.info/archive/05-06HDTVTOC.php

To order a trial subscription to HDTV Retailer, contact Dian Mecca, 203-831-8464, dian@insightmedia.info.

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