Rapidly falling prices on LCD televisions have prompted market research firm iSuppli to revise its sales forecasts for 2007: the company now believes some 75.2 million LCD TVs will be sold worldwide in 2007, up from 52.7 million sets in 2006. The figures represent a three percent increase in iSuppli’s estimate, and a 42.7 percent year-to-year growth in LCD sales.
“This strong growth in 2007 will pave the way for LCD-TV panel shipments to exceed 100 million units in 2008 and then grow to 171.6 million units by 2011,” said Sweta Dash, iSuppli’s director of LCD and projection research, in a statement. “By that time, LCD-TVs will dominate the market accounting for 65 percent of all television unit shipments worldwide.”
It’s interesting to note that a year-to-year growth rate of 42.7 percent actually represents a slower rate of growth for the LCD TV industry, which saw sales explode by 95.8 percent between 2004 and 2005.
In addition to falling prices—a 32-inch LCD panel is in many cases may be almost 20 percent cheaper in the first half of 2007 compared to the end of 2006—iSuppli cites growing awareness of the U.S. mandate to shut off analog television broadcasts as a motivating factor behind some LCD TV sales.
