LCD price drops... soon.

[VIAN]

http://www.tomshardware.com/hardnews/20040702_125338.html

 

[Falloutboy]

but who trusts tom? i'll wait till I see it

 

[lopri]

but who trusts tom?

I 2nd that.

lop

 

[Concillian]

I've heard it other places.

Supposedly the LCD makers curbed production of 15" LCDs hoping people would buy 17s at higher margins instead. People didn't bite, and inventories of 15" monitors are nothing and they have excess capacity now. Same thing with TVs, as manufacturing capacity is growing, demand isn't growing as much as anticipated. The manufacturers have already spent the capital on the high dollar equipment because fo the projections for stronger demand.

Because I work at a very similar manufacturing plant, I can understand the severe penalties of not running a high capital $$$ factory at much below 90-95% of max. The way is paved for prices to start dropping rapidly. It's a vicious cycle that I see all the time:

Marketing/sales guys want to look good and make strong projections
Higher ups plan to these projections and make factory exapansions in accordance with expectations.
Demand falls short of projections
No choice but to either take a loss, build inventory, or lower price for better manufacturing efficiency.