The flat-screen battleground

Flat-screen TVs were at the center of the deep discounting early this morning - for good reason. They're much cheaper to make than they were just a couple of years ago and they're obviously in huge demand (lots of folks making the transition from analog to digital and HDTV). Retailers still claim that profit margins are acceptable, but TV prices are tumbling so much so fast that analysts are beginning to have their doubts. That's why some of the retail stocks look iffy. Since August, the average price of screens in the 40-to-44-inch range has dropped about 9 percent, to $1,900, according to Pacific Media Associates. From BW:

"The bigger they are, the faster they fall," says Paul Semenza, an analyst at market research firm iSuppli in San Jose. And big is the name of the TV-making game these days, especially when it comes to the factories that produce the machines. "What has happened over the past year is the factories have grown big enough to make these big panels efficiently," Semenza says. "Up until a year ago, you couldn't make 40-inch panels [and larger] very efficiently." Another reason for the price decline stems from the technological advances that help LCD manufacturers produce large screens at comparable cost to plasma. DLP technology adds even more competition, paving the way for firms such as Vizio to enter the market traditionally populated by Sony and Toshiba.