Best Buy says that there is “genuine customer interest” for large TVsThe NPD Group’s Stephen Baker has told Marketwatch that US consumer appetites to trade up in TVs are being fuelled by falling prices. UltraHD TVs in Q1’15 cost about half what they did when they were introduced in Q4’13 – on average, around $1,600. The number of UltraHD sets sold has risen 16 times – even with the price drop, that means that sales value is up nine times.
In total, 50″+ US TV sales (of all resolutions) has risen 22% YoY from April 2014 to April 2015. These sales are now valued at $8.4 billion, from $6.9 billion a year earlier. Overall FPD TV sales fell 5.8% over the same period, Baker said.
Quoting Best Buy CEO Hubert Joly, Marketwatch writes that there is “genuine customer interest for larger screen televisions”, which is partly driven by UltraHD. Another US retailer, HH Gregg, said that UltraHD TVs currently represent about half of its TV product mix, but will rise to 50% by the end of the year.
