Sony dominates mindshare but shoppers opt for lower-priced brands

Menlo Park, CA -- (ReleaseWire) -- 01/07/2008 -- Pacific Media Associates (PMA), the global market information experts on large-screen displays, has just completed their End User Survey, which provides quantitative evidence of some notable and sometimes surprising consumer behavior. One key result is a measure of the reasons that consumers increasingly choose LCD over plasma for flat panel HDTVs.

“All else being equal, consumers shopping for a new flat panel TV are willing to pay $162 more for an LCD than a plasma,” according to Rosemary Abowd, PMA’s Vice President of flat panel and rear projection TV research. “Shoppers rated LCD HDTVs ahead of plasma models on all major decision criteria except Sex Appeal and Picture Quality. Unfortunately for makers of plasma sets, new shoppers are considering price increasingly important relative to picture quality.”

Price is important, but size is even more important, according to the 500+ consumers who provided data regarding their current usage and future plans. While the most popular size range for future purchases is 40 to 42 inches, a total of 40% of shoppers want to buy a set that is larger than 42 inches. And they are willing to pay an average of $187 more for it.

Sony enjoys the largest share of the TVs currently in use in U.S. households, whether measured for all technologies combined or flat panel TVs only. “For years, Sony has demonstrated the highest mindshare of any brand, and this year they accounted for a full one-third of votes on both ‘best’ brand and intention to buy,” according to Abowd. “But even more interesting was the surprising finding that lower-tier brands like Vizio and Westinghouse did not score in the top ten on ’best’ but did score there on intention to buy.”

Note: Data cited here is based on a sample of end users, and is subject to sampling error.

About Pacific Media Associates
Pacific Media specializes in global display market information, covering all large-screen display categories: front projectors, plasma and LCD TVs, and rear-projection displays. Their Large-Screen Displays Industry Service family of publications provides detailed worldwide quarterly updates (sell-in data and forecasts) on large-screen display markets, newsletters on new products and other key industry developments, monthly advertised price tracking, ad hoc analyses, and annual Web surveys of North American end users (including organizations and individual consumers) and both North American and EMEA resellers/retailers. Their Large-Screen Displays Tracking Service family of monthly reports offers timely sell-through data and analysis on unit sales, true volume-weighted street prices, and inventories of large-screen displays sold by leading North American retailers, resellers, and distributors. Pacific Media Associates was established by Dr. William Coggshall, who was previously a co-founder of Dataquest and helped start the syndicated high-tech market information business. The company headquarters is at 1060 Siskiyou Drive, Menlo Park, CA 94025. Telephone +1 650-561-9020 www.pacificmediaassociates.com