Global HDTV shipments exceed SDTVs for first time

by Darren Murph, posted Oct 24th 2008 at 8:01AM

The times, they are a-changin'. Back in February, we found that LCD TV shipments had surpassed CRTs for the first time in history. Now, an iSuppli report on HDTV growth has shown that HDTVs overtook standard-definition televisions "as the leading TV shipped globally" in 2008. Sure, the current economic environment may put a damper on HDTV sales for the moment, but the previously mentioned research sees no sign of growth slowing in the long-term. In fact, it forecasts that HDTV unit shipments will surge to 241.2 million by 2012, up from 97.1 million units in 2007; in comparison, it reckons that just 23.1 million SDTVs will ship out in 2012. Oh, and if you're eager for even more smile-worthy news, the report also suggests that HD set-top-boxes will represent 50% of the overall STB market in under four years. Time will tell.

[Via InformationWeek, image courtesy of ThePoolSide]

Filed under: Industry, Displays, DVRs, Set-top boxes

Tags: 2012, analysis, analyst, data, hdtv, industry, iSuppli, report, research, sales, sdtv, shipments, trends, tv

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Neutral

why not the LS2LS7? @ Oct 24th 2008 11:09AM

Freakin' told you so.

http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/10/14/analysts-say-hdtv-sales-could-decline-in-current-economy-snow-c/

There's just no way HDTV sales can drop, people go to the store to get a regular TV and get an HDTV because it's so cheap. Yeah, big-ticket HDTV sales can drop, like 52" panels or whatever. But since so many more TVs are sold in the 20-35" range and last year almost all were SDTVs and this year will be largely HDTVs, the overall sales will increase.

I'd still be a little scared to be in the HDTV selling business right now, since the big-ticket items are where the real money is made, and those sales will slow.

Neutral

7on @ Oct 24th 2008 11:18AM

Bought a Samsung 32" 450 thi past wednesday! Go me and helping the economy! Just doing my part :)

Neutral

Tom @ Oct 24th 2008 11:37AM

We are really seeing some stunning price drops on HDTVs...especially in the larger sizes. If you are in the market for an HDTV, definitely spend time on the deal sites like SlickDeals or TechDealDigger.com (the latter focuses particularly on tech and does well with HDTVs). You'll want to check sites like these regularly because retailers will often run their best discounts for just a day or two at a time.

http://www.techdealdigger.com/hot-deals/hdtvs-sale/63

Low Ranked

shawnmos @ Oct 24th 2008 12:34PM

Good news for Blu-ray.

Highly Ranked

Multi-format-mayhem @ Oct 24th 2008 12:50PM

It's incredibly short-sighted to say this is 'good news' for Blu-ray.

Small sized TVs - and they are, by far, the bulk of what is being discussed here - even if they are supposedly 'HD' are absolutely not good news, for Blu-ray - or high def more generally .

If there were ever HD TV sizes guaranteed to get people dismissively saying "is that it!?" it's got to be a 32" - 37" set (even 40" - 50" is not exactly ideal).

Unless you're going to treat your TV like a PC monitor and sit inches away HD is pretty much wasted on that size of set.

Combine a small HD TV and a relatively expensive Blu-ray player & the relatively expensive movie and what do you get?
Turned off customers telling their friends and rels that it's a rip-off and a waste of money, is what.

http://www.carltonbale.com/2006/11/1080p-does-matter/

Sorry but you can't beat your own biology & the physics involved.

Neutral

why not the LS2LS7? @ Oct 25th 2008 3:53AM

It is good news for BluRay. No, not every HDTV sold leads to a BluRay sale, but it's a lot tougher to get people to buy a BluRay player if they don't have an HDTV first. This creates a larger group of people to sell BluRay to, even if most of them won't end up buying it any time soon.

Your argument about biology is overstated. It follows the fallacy that people won't buy something if they can't tell the difference in their own home. People buy a lot of stuff they don't need and convince themselves they did need it. Other people will not be able to test BluRay (or whatever) in a situation similar enough to their own home setup to know that their home setup wouldn't show an appreciable difference with BluRay.

Highest Ranked

Multi-format-mayhem @ Oct 25th 2008 10:12AM

@ why not the LS2LS7?

As much as I enjoy a good old debate if the best you can manage is to rely on what boils down to a 'people can be conned' argument then I'd not bother if I were you.

Some impressionable sorts are like that, most, when it comes to their hard earned, are not.

Even PS3 owners I know are still buying DVD because when it's upscaled (on their 720p 50" sets) & played through their vanilla Dolby Digital 5.1 kit it looks & sounds 'good enough' - and leaves the expensive alternative Blu-ray movie looking a very poor deal.

(and as EngadgetHD reported, we know that at least as late as sept 2008 720p/1080i sets are still the majority sold
http://blogs.computerworld.com/lower_res_tv_sales_outpace_1080p_hurting_blu_ray )

So that's small HD TV sets and they are not even 1080p.

That's not a great way to show off the benefits of Blu-ray over HD TV services nor upscaled DVD.
Don't even bother trying to argue over this, it plainly just isn't.

Blu-ray can have all the no-name $200 players it likes but ultimately if it can't shift the movies then it really isn't going anywhere.

It's the new Laserdisc. That's all.
Accept it & enjoy.

Neutral

why not the LS2LS7? @ Oct 25th 2008 1:24PM

mfm:
A lot of people bought DVD based upon the 5.1 demos in stores even though well over 90% of people don't have a properly functioning 5.1 system even 10 years later.

And it's not a "people can be conned" argument. By and large these people convince themselves they want something better. "Keeping up with the joneses".

Who said anything about 1080p? You don't need 1080p to appreciate BluRay. More importantly, you don't need 1080p to buy BluRay.

You're just letting your anti-BluRay stance get in the way. Every HDTV sold makes it easier to sell BluRay players. No, it's not a slam dunk, most of these HDTVs will never have a BluRay player attached to them. But it still make it a lot easier to convince someone to buy a BluRay player (esp. with them available for $100-$200 now) if they don't also have to make a $500+ investment in a TV at the same time.

Neutral

why not the LS2LS7? @ Oct 25th 2008 8:22PM

He either spoke in error, it was mistranslated, or he's just a nut. These figures don't make any more sense than the article that 30% of video disc players sold in Japan last month were BluRay players.

See here.
http://www.contentagenda.com/blog/1500000150/post/1760024576.html
(although they don't speak Cantonese in Taipei, he should have said Mandarin)

Either way, again, you're trying to change it to be about whether BluRay will succeed or not. That's not the issue at hand here. The issue is whether this increase in HDTV sales is good for BluRay. Yes it is, it presents more opportunity to sell BluRay players.

Highest Ranked

Multi-format-mayhem @ Oct 25th 2008 8:45PM

"These figures don't make any more sense than the article that 30% of video disc players sold in Japan last month were BluRay players."

Actually they were claims about 'shipped' numbers, not verified sales.

"Either way, again, you're trying to change it to be about whether BluRay will succeed or not."

No that's not how this debate has worked at all.

Shawnmos said this was good for Blu-ray.
I disagree and said that small 720p/1080i HD TVs were not good for Blu-ray or any kind of high def because they reduce the 'benefit' and produce a lot more dissatisfaction and the "is that it!?" response - and btw that's dissatisfaction of the worst kind, ie direct experience spread by word of mouth amongst friends and family.

You can whirl around in ever decreasing silly little circles all you like but what I've said is correct.

It had nothing to do with the wider debate you introduced (about Blu-ray "succeeding" or not). In fact I have said all along that I think Blu-ray will be there as a niche product, just like Laserdisc was - and probably the Samsung guy was right in that it will stay relevant for maybe about the next 5yrs.

Do try and keep you Blu-coloured glasses from stopping you seeing what's actually said and not what you think has been said.

Neutral

why not the LS2LS7? @ Oct 26th 2008 12:19AM

People can't be dissatisfied until they've already bought a BluRay player and found out it doesn't make a huge difference in their home, can they? If a lot of people are going to be turned off, sounds like they're going to make a lot of sales first!

Upscaled DVD is a joke. Upscaled DVD is 720x480, just like regular DVD. Claude Shannon proved a long time before you were born that you can't make information that isn't there. It's lost, not hidden.

Jeez, talk about kidding yourself.

Highest Ranked

Multi-format-mayhem @ Oct 26th 2008 7:20AM

"Upscaled DVD is 720x480"

Actually it's not.

It can be 1280 x 720 (sometimes it's really 1366 x 768) or 1920 x 1080 after it's upscaled and on a PAL TV set it starts off at 720 x 576 (a 20% higher resolution from the starting point).

If upscaling is such a joke - and yet many people think the improvement 1080p high def offers is so close as to make high def an unnecessary expense - then how much closer to that "jokje" is a small HD TV set (at normal TV viewing distances) that's a 720p/1080i unit?

Obviously it's a truth you just can't or won't admit.

"Claude Shannon"
Oh dear, talk about scrabbling about at the bottom of the barrel.

Highest Ranked

Multi-format-mayhem @ Oct 25th 2008 2:19PM

@ why not the LS2LS7?

No, it's not an anti-Blu-ray stance. It's just accepting reality.

I think you're letting you Blu-tinted glasses get in the way of seeing what it is I'm saying.

Far too many people as it is right now say that the benefits Blu-ray offer are not worth it compared to upscaled DVD
(which does not require a special DVD player, it is what has to happen to every DVD played on an HD set unless you want to look at a small screen with huge black borders - and HD TVs are getting better and better at it as time goes by).

That 'benefit' diminishes everytime you step back from the idea (a very large 1080p HD TV).

So, having lots of small HD TVs incapable of displaying 1080p as your growth market (for now, until the recession really bites) is not 'good' for Blu-ray or high def, period.

Small HD TVs & no 1080p make the "is that it!?" comment (and the resentment at being so obviously led up the garden path about all of this = conned) inevitable.

I cannot see why you find this hard to understand - unless you have a very obvious bias?

Neutral

why not the LS2LS7? @ Oct 25th 2008 3:08PM

Why do you insist in arguing a different point?

IS THIS GOOD FOR BLURAY?

YES.

You go off and say BluRay is the new LaserDisc. Maybe so, maybe not. That changes nothing about this makes it easier to increase BluRay sales, whether to 3% of the market or to 50% of the market.

These TVs can accept 1080i and 1080p and display it at a better quality than DVD looks (even if a marginal improvementl). That means it is easier to sell BluRay to people who buy these TVs than people who still don't have an HDTV at all.

The sell goes something like this:
Person sees BluRay under ideal conditions in the store, they think "I'd like to have that at home." They see all you need is an HDTV and they have that. So some percentage of them (rather small right now) convince themself they will have that experience at home. So they buy a BluRay player. We both know there's a substantial chance they won't see nearly that much improvement in their own home. But in the end, that's somewhat secondary. They have already sold themself on it, and more importantly bought a player. Now the issue becomes how to sell discs to the person, which again, is much easier to do since they already have the two expensive bits it takes to play it. Convincing someone to spend $5 extra on the BluRay of Iron Man is easier than convincing them to spend $755 extra to see Iron Man in slightly better quality ($5 extra for the disc, $250 for a player, $500 for a TV).

Truth Teller, when you see a problem, you need to stop finding ways to inject "BluRay will never succeed" as the answer and instead argue the actual merits of the point at hand. This will make it easier to make additional BluRay sales. No one is saying it means BluRay will reach 50% market penetration next year (and very few would even suggest it would the year after that).

Highest Ranked

Multi-format-mayhem @ Oct 25th 2008 3:27PM

OK, so you're determined not to get it. Enjoy yourself with that one then.

Funnily enough you made this claim -

"why not the LS2LS7?

No one is saying it means BluRay will reach 50% market penetration next year (and very few would even suggest it would the year after that)."

Actually I think you'll find that some nutcase from Sony (only Sony president and Electronics CEO Ryoji Chubachi) claimed exactly that would happen this year.

http://www.thetechherald.com/article.php/200815/663/Sony-expects-Blu-ray-to-hold-50-market-share-in-2008

"Truth Teller"
Your paranoia is showing, maybe you're really Nfinity, Nfinity.

LOL

Neutral

LonnieDvD @ Nov 6th 2008 8:30PM

This is not good for Blu-Ray yet, not until they drop the price to DVD levels.

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