A report from Quixel Research hit today that states the 60 inch and above screen size segment ASP fell below $3,500 for the first time. This data is consistent with our most recent tracking of the +60-inch MDTV space in HDTV Retailer published by Insight Media. While Quixel’s Q1′06 data shows large MD ASP’s at below $3500, Insight Media’s much lower at $3,109 with new April-06 numbers that average the whole month of April. This will be published in the May issue of HDTV Retailer on May 16th.

Steve Sechrist
Senior Analyst and Editor
of Projection Monthly &
Microdisplay Report

The data from HDTV Retailer includes averages showing all MDTV technologies over the four

major channel groups with a weighted ARP (Asking Retail Price) of $3,109 with only LCOS-based sets still sitting above the $4K mark at $4165 (see chart 1.) The ARP of 3LCD-MDTV sets in the 60-69-inch category offered the best value at $2891, with DLP-MDTV coming in at $3124. The weighted average on all of these technologies over the four sales channels is shown in Chart 2. These weightings reflect the actual sales volumes in each channel with Brick and Mortar CE garnering a whopping 80% of the sales for the month.

When pitted against flat display PDP technology, the pricing significance was not lost on Quixel and that company’s principle analyst, Tamaryn Pratt who notes: "When taking into account the proverbial ‘bang for the buck’, Microdisplay RPTVs are the clear winner right now." Pratt also noted the almost 3X price differential between 60-inch PDPs and similarly sized MDTV based on Q1 numbers. Data from the next HDTV Retailer indicates the weighted average for 60-69: PDPs is $8,755.

This trend is not likely to continue as the PDP troika, including Japan’s Matsushita and Korean suppliers LG and Samsung are all ramping larger panel capacity targeting more efficient 50+ inch display manufacturing moving forward.

But for now, Pratt continues, "Even the 50 to 55 inch Microdisplays offer a great value compared to similar-sized Plasma TVs at over one and half times the price of the MDs." Consequently, both the unit and revenue share for the 60-inch and above segments grew in the first quarter 2006 according to Quixel’s numbers.

The company also reported revenues for the total USA Microdisplay RPTV category almost topped the $1.3B mark in Q1′06. This was a year-to-year increase of 29%, but down from Q4’05’s sales of $1.7B. MD RPTV unit sales were up significantly from Q1′05 to Q1′06 as volumes increased 47% during the period.

The total value of the Advanced TV market in the USA was worth over $4.7B in revenues in Q1′06 and the Microdisplay RPTV segment represented over 29% of that market. Quixel Research’s projections for the worldwide Microdisplay Rear Projection TV market show the category reaching almost $3B in sales by 2009, with the largest share of the market comprising the USA region.

Make no mistake flat panel displays are putting pressure on the MDTV market and prices are dropping as a result. But projection TVs will not cede the large display space without a fight. And as Pratt commented above, the technology is still "the best bang for the buck." -SS