The average U.S. selling price for LCD-TVs hit bottom in January at $1255 and came roaring back with a whopping $1 increase in February, according to Displaybank’s latest Weekly TV Tracker. Okay, so $1 isn’t much, but between the local maximum of $1317 in November ‘08 and January ‘09, the LCD ASP was a monotonically decreasing function. (For the non-mathematicians among us, that means the ASP was always going down and never going up.)

Ken Werner
Senior Analyst and Editor

Plasma ASP found its bottom in December ‘08 at $1225 and was up to $1254 in February.

ASP movements varied significantly with size. LCD-TVs from 26 to 42 inches (with the exception of 37 inches) were down significantly from January ‘09 to February ‘09, while larger sizes were up significantly. On the PDP side, 42-inch 1024×768 TV sets were up $32 on month, while 50-inch 1366×768 sets were down $5 and 50-inch Full HD sets were up $5.

The increased prices were coupled with stronger than expected TV sales, a working through of holiday inventories (which retailers had worked hard to control throughout the holiday season), and, the end of super-aggressive holiday pricing.

Sales in February for LCD-TV panels — as well as for notebook and monitor panels — were up month on month from 11% TVs to 37% (monitors), although still down on year, according to DisplaySearch’s Monhtly TFT LCD Shipment Database. This implies that system makers are expecting their improving sales to continue and are therefore continuing to order panels.

Panel prices remain stable from the first half of March to the second half, according to DisplaySearch’s Pricewise. Monitor and notebook panel prices are unchanged for all popular sizes, as are the prices for PDP-TV, mobile handset, and portable DVD player panels.

As the mix of panels for netbooks shifts away from 8.9-inch and towards 10.x-inch, 8.9-inch prices remain stable while 10.x prices are being cut moderately to fuel the transition.

The only area of significant continuing price reductions for panels is for LCD-TV panels 37 inches and larger, where prices dropped between $5 and $10 from the first half of March to the second half.

So, have TV prices found their bottom? They may have, and with panel prices (and the prices of other components) stable or declining in price, set makers may even be seeing higher margins. Eventually, that will help panel makers, too, who need higher prices to make their businesses stable for the long term. The current growth in plant utilization is certainly a relief, but higher prices are needed, too.