The price of liquid crystal display TVs has dropped by 40 percent and more this year as major manufacturers increased supply of large LCD panels. According to market researcher DisplayBank, the average price of a 42-inch LCD panel stands at US$640 this month, down 42.9 percent from December last year. The decrease in panel prices -- the half-finished TV screens -- has led to a corresponding drop in TV prices. DisplaySearch, another market researcher, says the average price of a 42-inch LCD TV dipped almost 35 percent, from $3,308 in the fourth quarter last year to $2,180 in the third quarter this year.

For PDP (plasma display panel) TVs, the average price of a 42-inch model fell only 20 percent, from $2,611 to $2,107, during the same period. Until last year, LDC TVs were almost 50 percent more expensive than PDP TVs of the same size. But the price gap has narrowed significantly. Since major LCD panel manufacturers more than doubled supply of large panels from last year by putting their seventh-generation production lines into operation, prices of some 40-inch LCD TVs made by Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics more than halved from about W4 million (US$1=W920) last year to less than W2 million. Sony, the world’s second largest LCD TV maker, predicted early this month that price of LCD TVs will drop 20-25 percent more next year.

(englishnews@chosun.com )