PriceSCAN Press Release
5/20/09
Significant Price Drops in 40 – 42 Inch LCD Televisions after Period of Price Stability
PriceSCAN Vice President of Financial Products Daniel Fehder commented that the first two weeks of May have seen dramatic declines in the prices of 40 – 42 Inch LCD Television after a period of price stability. Our LCD TV – 1080p – 40 – 42 Inch Index posted a 3.7% decline in the first two weeks of May, including a 2% decline last week. Previous to these May declines, the index showed a period of no decline from February through the end of April. These dramatic declines have pushed this index to new lows after a period of price stability. In addition, we have seen parallel declines in 40 – 42 Inch LCD Televisions with 720p resolution. The 720p Index has posted a 7% decline through the first two weeks of May after a slight price increase from February through the month of May.
Jeff Trester, PriceSCAN Co-CEO and Chief Economist, noted, “That the May decline has been more severe for the less advanced 720p sets than for those of 1080p resolution may reflect an older vintage approaching obsolescence. Yet as even our 1080p index is seeing sharp declines, one has to suspect that, in this weak economy, the demand for LCD sets is simply inadequate to support even the lower price levels of early 2009, despite any inventory drawdown that may have occurred in the last few months.”
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.
