Premium LCD HDTV makers slash the deepest on Black Friday

by Darren Murph posted Dec 8th 2008 at 1:23PM

Despite the mass media crying their hearts out about how dreadful sales would be on Black Friday, things actually turned out pretty good. 'Course, we suspect that had just a wee bit to do with how deep the discounts were on big ticket items, and a new report from iSuppli suggests that the premium brands peeled back the furthest. Yeah, Sony was talking tough about keeping its prices high, but it was still one of the six top-tier brands that slashed LCD prices 23% on average for the Black Friday weekend. Lower-cost manufacturers like Vizio and Westinghouse dropped their prices only 19%, though analysts are expecting the decline in prices to remain steady or fall even more as the end of 2008 draws near. If you've been holding off, there's never a time like the present...

[Image courtesy of SanDiegoHomeBlog]

Filed under: Industry, Displays

Tags: black friday, black friday 2008, BlackFriday, BlackFriday2008, brands, hdtv, marketing, price cuts, price drop, PriceCuts, PriceDrop, pricing, sales, sony, vizio

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Neutral

Galley @ Dec 8th 2008 2:40PM

Sony 46-inch Z-series LCDs were selling for as little as $1500; a markdown of $1000.

Neutral

FreeRange @ Dec 8th 2008 3:04PM

http://www.chron.com/apps/comics/showComick.mpl?date=20081207&name=Curtis

Not the same phrasing but this immediately jumped to mind from your comment. :-/

Neutral

Stin @ Dec 8th 2008 3:08PM

Overpriced to begin with. You can get a 1080p Panasonic 50pz80u plasma for $1200 which is better than any lcd out there..

Neutral

Tom @ Dec 8th 2008 3:02PM

There are some amazing discounts on premium TVs. I just picked up a Panasonic Viera TH-42PZ85U 42" 1080p Plasma for just $865. Thanks TechDealDigger! The deal is dead, but here's the link: http://www.techdealdigger.com/deals/panasonic-viera-th-42pz85u-865-at-amazon/5392

This is one of the top rated plasmas on the market and the quality blows away that of my 2 year old 720p Sharp Aquos. I highly recommend monitoring the deal sites like TechDealDigger.com or SlickDeals. If you are patient, you can score a hot deal on a great TV.

Neutral

L3 @ Dec 8th 2008 3:43PM

Really good links. Thanks.

Neutral

squiggleslash @ Dec 8th 2008 3:05PM

It makes sense. If you look at what shifted the most on Black Friday, it was more or less the low, sub-$500, items that were also being heavily discounted. Trying to move anything costing more than that required extreme price cuts, and they weren't enough in the end.

Neutral

Bozster @ Dec 8th 2008 4:14PM

I think what's clear from this information is how much consumers get ripped off on account of nothing, just because CEs can. And they wonder why HD penetration is so low.

Btw, of course it's logical that Vizio and other lower brands won't slash the prices as they are already heavily discounted to begin with. I mean come on, it's logic do you have to report for everything. Jeez.

Neutral

Richard Ginn @ Dec 8th 2008 7:52PM

Too bad the 32" TV's and smaller did not get a good sized price cut though.

Neutral

Woody @ Dec 8th 2008 8:54PM

Brick and mortar discounts for the good HDTVs was just ridiculous! There was almost none! It was all the crappy 2 or 3 year old models or the crappy current models that were discounted. Neither of the good Samsungs that I was waiting on were discounted anywhere! I ended up buying one on ebay and the other on Amazon. Psh!

The Best of Big Download: November 2 - 8 Japanese hardware sales, Oct. 26 - Nov. 1: Away we Go edition Final Fantasy XIII announcement possibly due on Nov. 13	HTML5 YouTube viewer: close, but not quite there Photoshop.com Mobile now available for Android devices Jailbroken iPhones in Australia getting Rickrolled by a worm
TUAW Review and giveaway: Blur Tripod and app for iPhone YouTube with all of the sizzle but none of the Flash Balloons! Sending out a mystery message on your iPhone	Options Update: Amazon volatility low, shares at record high Before the bell: Futures climb as Wall Street eyes deals Sunday Funnies: Barron's predicting profits?
Reminder: Watch the first episode of Halo Legends today [update: It's gone] Homemade Fallout 3 Shishkebab, make 'em now before the apocalypse Gears of War 2 celebrates first anniversary with triple XP	Très Exclusif: French Abarth importer creates special edition Cinquecento AutoblogGreen for 11.09.09 SEMA 2009 Worst of Show: This car stinks...
This Week In PC Games: November 9-15 The Best of Big Download: November 2-8 BioWare's Neverwinter Nights downloadable modules no longer available	Four 'Contenders' in Serious Trouble Reborn Bengals Shut Baltimore Up Philip Rivers Redeems Self in 'Eli Bowl'