Black Friday is still 11 days away, but for TV manufacturers looking to jump-start sluggish sales in the midst of a recession, it's already here--and will likely continue in spirit right through the holiday season.
Word of current and impending HDTV price drops is spreading rapidly. The HDGuru reports, for example, that Sony, Samsung, and Mitsubishi are rolling out MSRP reductions across the board, with some cuts as high as $500 on expensive models like the
Looking for more? The latest Black Friday price watch (PDF) over at TWICE includes advertised price drops that range from 11 percent for the
We suspect even better bargains are yet to come. In past years, the best deals were available after Black Friday, in the weeks leading up to Christmas, especially on name-brand TVs.
The combination of the holiday season, nosediving economy and the impending DTV transition may be creating a perfect storm of low HDTV prices, but are people actually buying new TVs as a result? So far the answer seems to be "no." Growth in shipments of LCD and plasma TVs are finally beginning to decline, showing the slowest rate by far in the past two years. As economic news worsens, it's anybody's guess whether the American public, historically hot to drop cash for HDTVs during the holidays, will choose to wait instead this year.
What do you think, American public? Are these deals too good to pass up, or are you going to wait out the storm? Sound off in comments.