Flat-Panel Display Prices Set to Drop
For PC users interested in a thin film transistor LCD to replace their bulky cathode ray tube monitor, now may be the right time to start thinking about an upgrade as prices on flat-panel screens are expected to fall in the months ahead.
TFT-LCD prices have soared more than 40 percent over the past year, but analysts tracking the display market say prices will now head lower due to increases in production capacity.
The average selling price for large-area TFT-LCDs, those greater than 8.4 inches in size, reached $270 during the second quarter of 2002. That represents a 42 percent increase over the same period last year, when the average selling price for large flat-panel displays hit a low of $189, according to AU Optronics, the world's third-largest TFT-LCD maker, in Hsinchu, Taiwan.
That reflects a trend across the entire TFT-LCD industry where the average price for 15-inch modules--the actual display component of a flat-panel monitor--rose 29 percent between September 2001 and June 2002, according to market analyst DisplaySearch. At the same time, prices for 15-inch LCD monitors, the most popular monitor size, rose 6 percent, it says.
With production capacity on the increase, prices for TFT-LCD modules are expected to fall and that will translate into lower prices for end users as vendors are likely to cut prices on 15-inch monitors, DisplaySearch said last month.
"We have much more capacity coming out this summer and in the second half of this year," says Sean Wu, a senior analyst at the Market Information Center of the Institute for Information Industry in Taipei.
Despite expectations of lower prices for TFT-LCD monitors, they still come at a hefty premium over their traditional CRT cousins.
Dell Computer, which DisplaySearch tapped as the number one vendor of TFT-LCD monitors worldwide, sells a 15-inch TFT-LCD monitor under its own brand for $429 on its U.S. Web site, with models available from other companies for $350. By comparison, Dell's Web site offers a 17-inch CRT monitor, which offers a viewable area that is roughly comparable to a 15-inch TFT-LCD monitor, under the Dell brand for $199.
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