Prices for liquid crystal display (LCD) TVs are falling at a slower pace this year, but consumers will still enjoy significant price drops for the next few years, market researcher DisplaySearch said Friday.The biggest price declines for users will come by the end of 2007, before the market begins to mature and discounts slow down. In fact, the pace at which price tags are being lowered has already slowed compared to last year.The average selling price of a 32-inch LCD TV in the United States dropped just 24 percent during the first 18 weeks of this year, compared to a 53 percent decline during the same period last year. In 37-inch screens, the price drop this year was 30 percent, compared to 53 percent a year ago.Part of the reason for the slower price decline was that there was no oversupply, said Ross Young, president of DisplaySearch, part of the NDP Group, at an event in Taipei. The market research company expects prices for today’s LCD TV models to fall by as much as 68 percent between the end of last year through the end of 2010. Of course, vendors are likely to come up with bigger, fancier screens to tempt buyers into buying higher-priced models.Consumers globally have been snapping up flat-display TVs for the past few years. Last year in Japan, LCD TVs overtook the bulky old cathode ray tube TVs for the first time by the narrow margin of 47.8 percent to 46.5 percent. Flat displays are popular in Japan because most people live in apartments, so space is a premium. The smaller a company can shrink a gadget, the more likely a Japanese user will buy it. The opposite is the case In North America, at least for LCD TVs. U.S. users tend to look for the biggest screen size they can get.“That’s because Americans like to have larger TVs, and space isn’t such an issue,” said Young.Looking down the road, industry players at a flat-panel display conference this week said they expect plasma display panel TVs to gain in popularity, especially in larger sizes, where they will become cheaper than LCD TVs. A few other new technologies could also become more important in the flat TV market, but no matter what the technology, the most important aspect for users is brightness. “Brighter displays always win in the market if other conditions are the same,” said Fusao Ishi, an executive adviser at Sony.-Dan Nystedt, IDG News Service Check out our CIO News Alerts and Tech Informer pages for more updated news coverage. Related content BrandPost Retail innovation playbook: Fast, economical transformation on Microsoft Cloud For retailers, tight integration of data and systems is the antidote to a challenging economy. By Tata Consultancy Services Mar 24, 2023 3 mins Retail Industry Digital Transformation BrandPost How retailers are empowering business transformation with TCS and Microsoft Cloud AI-powered omnichannel integration and a strong, secure digital core lets retailers innovate across four primary areas while staying compliant, maintaining security and preventing fraud. By Tata Consultancy Services Mar 24, 2023 4 mins Retail Industry Cloud Computing BrandPost How to Build ROI from Cloud Migration This whitepaper and webcast can help you calculate the ROI and create a business case for modernizing your legacy applications to the Microsoft Cloud. By Tata Consultancy Services Mar 24, 2023 1 min Retail Industry Cloud Computing BrandPost How to power a sustainable enterprise on Microsoft Cloud In this eBook, we’ll follow the journey of Amal Skye, a fictitious woman who is committed to living in a way that preserves the planet for the future —and how businesses like Tata Consultancy Services and Microsoft are making that possi By Tata Consultancy Services Mar 24, 2023 1 min Retail Industry Green IT Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe