March 30, 2003
LCD price fixing?
What's with prices on LCD displays?
On one hand a laptop can be had with UXGA resolution display for $1000. Try buying that display alone and you'll find it's also around $1000. Then there's how much they're gouging for the same resolution in an LCD television.
There are, of course, manufacturing yield issues with LCDs. The bigger you make them, the harder it becomes to make one free from defects. But look at the price differentials between OEM panels in laptops vs that of standalone monitors. The disparity is quite wide. Balancing (subsidizing) one market on the backs of another is not a new thing. But it seems a reach to use that as justification for the LCD montior/TV prices.
So what's going on here? Are the monitor manufacturers pulling a fast one here? Are they gouging consumers? And why are they priced so similarly across the board?
Hope it's okay but I submitted this to /. to see if any good answers come up. Who knows if it will get posted though, since none of my previous submissions have been.
Posted by: BillSaysThis on March 30, 2003 07:04 PMIt's been posted! I'm a slashdot subscriber and I see that this story has been posted, it will be up probably within 20 minutes
Posted by: Zach on March 31, 2003 08:35 PMBrace yourself, here it comes. Its on slashdot, or will be in a few minutes. Hope you've paid you bandwidth bill! :)
Actually, as I am going to say on slashdot, a lot of it has to do with supply vs demand. There are a LOT of laptops sold, but comparitvily, not many standalone LCD screens. It does require some more work to make a LCD screen accept VGA or RCA input.
Zaffle brings up an interesting point Bill. The display converter, while I'm sure doesn't account for everything, is a good chunk of change. The normal screen on a laptop is an LVDS interface or something even more direct (think just a pin interface). So all you see in the laptop is the panel cost and a special graphics card that goes straight to display instead of with two converters in the middle.
Food for thought.
Posted by: Jordan on March 31, 2003 08:48 PMIf you consider the amount of these right now on the market there is usually a high markup and as time goes on it will decrease and become more competitive. I think people have to start buying them more often and prices will drop all in good time.
Posted by: Blaine on March 31, 2003 09:17 PMI agree with you. This is a real rip off!! But I am sure prices will come crashing down by the beginning of next year!
Posted by: sanjay on April 1, 2003 07:51 AMTry diy, here in England you can pick up an LCD monitor for £180 and separate tuner for £90. An LCD Tv costs £600, the difference in cost is obvious.
