Will People Pay for Slimmer TVs?

Manufacturers continue to cut down LCDs to thinner and thinner dimensions, but is anyone willing to pay for it in this economic climate?

It’s rare to see a vice president of marketing talking sense, but Toshiba’s Scott Ramirez pulled off a convincing impression of it when he outlined trends and predictions for 2009 at the company’s press conference this year. Besides comments about gradation being the new black and 240Hz sets supplanting 120Hz sets, Ramirez asserted that the trend toward thinner and thinner TVs was impractical, and I’m inclined to believe him.

Last year’s Consumer Electronics Show was the year of thin, with seemingly every manufacturer in the game introducing a stylishly slim TV, and this year tends to be looking the same direction. Samsung, for instance, has already announced that it will have a 6.5mm thick set this year. But as Ramirez pointed out, who really complains that an existing TV is too thick? And if people are content with what they have, who’s inclined to pay extra for a new one?

Thin TVs will continue to drop jaws at trade shows, doubtless, but when it comes to moving units at retail stores, a couple of millimeters shaved off the depth of a TV just aren’t worth paying for.