PriceSCAN Press Release
5/5/09
Price Decreases for Sharp and Sony Sets Move 50+ Inch LCD Index Down 7%
PriceSCAN Vice President of Financial Products Daniel Fehder commented that the LCD – 50+ Index has posted a 7% decline this year to date, compared with a 6% decline in 2008. Much of this decline can be attributed to price action in Sharp TVs and Sony TVs that have seen a 7% and 10% year to date decline respectively. By Comparison, Samsung sets posted only a 2% decline. Most surprising, however, was the decline in the spread between Sony’s price levels and the overall index which reached historic lows in March. The PriceSCAN LCD 50+ Index measures LCD televisions of at least 50 inches.
Jeff Trester, PriceSCAN Co-CEO and Chief Economist, noted, “We’re seeing price declines for both low and high end larger LCD televisions. However, the more precipitous decline in the price of a premium name like Sony may demonstrate increased price sensitivity on the part of consumers, as budget-constrained buyers are less willing and less able to pay up for traditionally pricier brands in the face of ongoing economic weakness.”
About The PriceSCAN Manufactured Product Indices
The PriceSCAN Manufactured Product Indices are a set of 50 indices tracking a broad array of finished good prices at the retail level. The PriceSCAN indices are carried on Bloomberg's data service under the ticker symbol PRIC and are available on PriceSCAN.com’s website at http://www.pricescan.com/indices. PriceSCAN.com also makes available customized data packages for clients in the financial, technology and retail communities.
About the PriceSCAN.com Econometric Team
Dr. Jeffrey J. Trester is Co-CEO and Chief Economist of PriceSCAN. After graduating MIT and attending Yale for graduate studies in theoretical physics, Dr. Trester received his PhD in financial economics from the Wharton School. He has also served on the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank’s Business Council. Daniel C. Fehder is Vice President of Financial Products at PriceSCAN.com. A graduate of Harvard and University of Pennsylvania, he can be reached for comment at analytics {at} pricescan.com
About PriceSCAN.com, Inc
Founded in 1997, PriceSCAN.com is a comprehensive price and product comparison service. Millions of consumers a year have used PriceSCAN.com to bargain hunt. In addition to price comparison, PriceSCAN.com offers objective vendor ratings, a price focused technology blog, user reviews, price trend graphs, and email price target alerts.
