Premium LCD HDTV makers slash the deepest on Black Friday

Despite the mass media crying their hearts out about how dreadful sales would be on Black Friday, things actually turned out pretty good. 'Course, we suspect that had just a wee bit to do with how deep the discounts were on big ticket items, and a new report from iSuppli suggests that the premium brands peeled back the furthest. Yeah, Sony was talking tough about keeping its prices high, but it was still one of the six top-tier brands that slashed LCD prices 23% on average for the Black Friday weekend. Lower-cost manufacturers like Vizio and Westinghouse dropped their prices only 19%, though analysts are expecting the decline in prices to remain steady or fall even more as the end of 2008 draws near. If you've been holding off, there's never a time like the present...

[Image courtesy of SanDiegoHomeBlog]

[Galley Posted Dec 8th 2008 2:40PM]

Sony 46-inch Z-series LCDs were selling for as little as $1500; a markdown of $1000.

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 8th 2008 3:04PM]

http://www.chron.com/apps/comics/showComick.mpl?date=20081207&name=Curtis

Not the same phrasing but this immediately jumped to mind from your comment. :-/

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 8th 2008 3:08PM]

Overpriced to begin with. You can get a 1080p Panasonic 50pz80u plasma for $1200 which is better than any lcd out there..

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 8th 2008 3:02PM]

There are some amazing discounts on premium TVs. I just picked up a Panasonic Viera TH-42PZ85U 42" 1080p Plasma for just $865. Thanks TechDealDigger! The deal is dead, but here's the link: http://www.techdealdigger.com/deals/panasonic-viera-th-42pz85u-865-at-amazon/5392

This is one of the top rated plasmas on the market and the quality blows away that of my 2 year old 720p Sharp Aquos. I highly recommend monitoring the deal sites like TechDealDigger.com or SlickDeals. If you are patient, you can score a hot deal on a great TV.

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 8th 2008 3:43PM]

Really good links. Thanks.

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 8th 2008 3:05PM]

It makes sense. If you look at what shifted the most on Black Friday, it was more or less the low, sub-$500, items that were also being heavily discounted. Trying to move anything costing more than that required extreme price cuts, and they weren't enough in the end.

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 8th 2008 4:14PM]

I think what's clear from this information is how much consumers get ripped off on account of nothing, just because CEs can. And they wonder why HD penetration is so low.

Btw, of course it's logical that Vizio and other lower brands won't slash the prices as they are already heavily discounted to begin with. I mean come on, it's logic do you have to report for everything. Jeez.

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 8th 2008 7:52PM]

Too bad the 32" TV's and smaller did not get a good sized price cut though.

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 8th 2008 8:54PM]

Brick and mortar discounts for the good HDTVs was just ridiculous! There was almost none! It was all the crappy 2 or 3 year old models or the crappy current models that were discounted. Neither of the good Samsungs that I was waiting on were discounted anywhere! I ended up buying one on ebay and the other on Amazon. Psh!