THE FRONT LINE: DECEMBER 5, 2006
Wheeling and Dealing for Christmas
Shopping for a new HDTV this holiday season? Plasma and RPTV set prices are falling through the floor. Here are some price and market trends to keep in mind.
Now that we’re past the craziness of Black Friday, a second wave of shoppers is moving through big box stores and cruising the Internet, looking for deals on HDTV sets and related components. By all accounts, it’s a buyer’s market this season, marked by deep discounts as retailers play a high-stakes game of “chicken” to boost same-store sales over 2005.
There have been some casualties already, most notably Wal-Mart, whose November sales numbers did not meet expectations. There were a variety of reasons why, but one in particular was their premature announcement of deep price cuts on HDTV sets. That gave other big box competitors plenty of time to negotiate and get comparable discounts from manufacturers.
A quick survey of HDTV prices the weekend after Black Friday at local Circuit City, Tweeter, Best Buy, and CompUSA stores showed that many discounts were still in place while some deals even got better.
In particular, Panasonic, Sony, Pioneer, Toshiba, and Mitsubishi were offering the steepest discounts. Samsung and LG had moderate discounts, while HP, Hitachi, Philips, and Sharp were offering minimal discounts. 2nd-tier brands like Olevia and Vizio had very low prices across the board, as did Polaroid.
If you want to buy a 50-inch integrated plasma, you should be able to negotiate a deal for $2,000 or less on a 1st-tier name brand like Samsung, and Panasonic. SRPs ranged from $1,999 for Panasonic’s TH-50PX60U to $2,299 for Samsung’s HPS5053X and HP’s PL5060N. Vizio has their P50HDTV set for $1,699 at Sam’s and BJ’s, and Toshiba marked down the 50HP66 to $2,298 at Tweeter.
50-inch RPTVs are a real bargain now, particularly Sony’s 50-inch 50KDSA2000 SXRD (1920x1080p) set. I found it for $1,899, with the 60-inch version (KDS60A2000) selling for just $500 more. Samsung’s 56-inch HLS5687WX DLP RPTV — another 1080p set — was shown at $2,199, matching Mitsubishi’s WD-57731 DLP RPTV. In the 61-inch category, Samsung’s HLS6187W (1080p) was neck and neck with JVC’s HD61FN87 at $2,599.
There is a real battle to the death between plasma and RPTVs right now, and Panasonic’s aggressive price cuts for the holiday season show they won’t take any prisoners. Believe it or not, I found the TH-42PX60U for $1,199, $400 less than Panasonic’s 37-inch offering!
Pioneer has also had to cut its prices to keep up with the marketplace. Their PDP-4271HD has been cut to $2,799, but you can do better — Tweeter had the PDP-4216HD for $1,699 (normally $2,799), and many more sitting in boxes at the rear of the store. The 42-inch Pro Elite PRO940HD had been slashed by $1000 to $2,999, while the PDP-5016HD integrated HDTV had a $1300 price cut to $2,499. (Yes, you can get good deals at Tweeter!)
Pioneer has been having rough times financially as their core plasma business takes one shot after another from lower-priced competitors and cheap 1080p LCD HDTVs. Their discounts were expected, but the depth of those discounts (as much as 35%) were surprising — and maybe a distress signal? Even the company’s top-of-the-line PRO-HD1 50-inch 1080p plasma was available for $6,495, a $1500 reduction from the new, reduced MSRP of $7,999.
Surprisingly, LG’s 60-inch 60PC1D plasma HDTV was priced at $4,299 after a moderate discount of $500. Hitachi’s 55-inch 55HDS69 was more aggressively priced at $3,499 and a better buy. Look for further discounts on both models in response to Panasonic’s price slashing.
As for the RPTV manufacturers, they are sweating big time as SRPs drop and narrow profit margins. Best Buy took $500 off the sticker of Mitsubishi’s 73-inch WD-73732 1080p RPTV to $4,999, but Tweeter went one better and dropped the price to $4,499 with a $1,000 discount. Ditto Samsung’s 71-inch HLS7178 — Best Buy had it for $4,799, while Tweeter clipped it even further to $4,299.
Two more victims of this fierce fighting are 42-inch and 46-inch RPTVs. Samsung’s HLS4266WX, a 720p DLP set, was offered at $999 — just a hair under comparably-sized plasma sets from Panasonic, Vizio, and LG. Sony’s KDF46E2000 Grand Wega RPTV was cut by $450 to $1149.99 to stay ahead of LCD competitors like Vizio (GV46LHDTV, $1,699 at Sam’s Club).
For now, discounts on LCD HDTVs haven’t been as dramatic or widespread, although you can find a few 42-inch and 46-inch integrated sets for less than $2,000. The real discounts this year are in RPTVs and plasma sets, both of which should give you great pictures and low prices
Shop around — be aggressive — ask for a better deal. Chances are; you’ll get it, especially as we get closer to December 25th. (And don’t forget to check out inventory clearance sales in January of 2007 as the Super Bowl approaches…)
