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Consumers Want LCD Over Plasma
TFC Info says there's a lot of consumer confusion, and price isn't as big of a factor when it comes to TV purchases.
Westinghouse TX-42F430S
TFC Info also says that demand is increasing for 42-inch LCD products, citing competitive pricing.
May 28, 2008 | by Rachel Cericola

Consumers have a lot of perceptions and preferences when it comes to purchasing an LCD and/or plasma display—at least that’s what a new TFC Info study says.

Although many of those surveyed consider LCD to be the best bargain, price is not the driving factor that most would expect. It seems that the true driving factors are, well… outdated.

The top driving force, according to TFC’s “Flat Panel End User Survey: LCD vs. Plasma 2008,” is product longevity. That’s fine and dandy, but as Twice points out, most consumers don’t know a whole lot about a product’s lifespan—at least not as much as the manufacturer thinks.

More than half of those surveyed thought that flat panels would give them a good five years of entertainment. However, both plasma and LCD typically last longer.

“Since so many respondents placed high importance on product lifetime, it would be advantageous for manufacturers of flat screen displays to address this misconception and confusion regarding lifetime of these displays in different terms,” TFC said in its report.

Of course, many want their purchases to last, but it’s sort of surprising that price didn’t even rank in the top three slots. Instead, consumers cited picture quality, reliability, longer product life, and screen size ahead of price concerns.

What are your top five concerns when making a major electronics purchase?



Rachel Cericola - Contributing Writer
Over the past 15 years, Rachel Cericola has covered entertainment, web and technology trends. Check her out at www.rachelcericola.com.



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Comments (21) Most recent displayed first.
Posted by Bill  on  06/20/08  at  03:47 PM

So how does this justify the headline of LCD over plasma?

I have one of each type of set, and each has its pros and cons and each is put to its appropriate use.

In my case that’s a nice plasma display for home theatre/movie viewing and LCD for regular cable viewing.

Posted by Alex Johansen  on  06/03/08  at  03:09 PM

I still like DLP…

Posted by Steven  on  05/31/08  at  10:14 AM

I will respond to WalksinDarkness’s comments about the driving factors in LCDs being large size and small price. This is true to a degree but a really big one is people wanting to buy something that they believe won’t be obsolete technology in the near future. It’s amazing the extra features customers hope to get because they have heard it’s important. Definitely there is a big belief out there that LCDs will last longer. I hear that daily from customers.

Posted by Steve Berger  on  05/30/08  at  07:12 PM

5 Years is a surprisingly accurate estimate of lifespan for all HD and HD-ready flat panel TVs. While the panel itself could last longer, the circuit boards will not. (and they are failing catastrophically at that age)  I went into great technical detail in an email to Ed Foster’s “Gripe Line” at InfoWorld. http://weblog.infoworld.com/gripeline/archives/2008/02/theoretically_r.html?source=NLC-GRIPE&cgd=2008-03-04 that I don’t care to type out again. Some of the follow up comments were pretty interesting also. There’s a reason why extended warranty prices have risen dramatically: to cover the cost of replacing 3 year old unrepairable sets. If the link does not make it into this reply you can find it by a search for “ed foster theoretically repairable”

Posted by joemama127  on  05/30/08  at  12:06 PM

Two points made by WalksInDarkness and Steven pretty much sum up this issue in my experience. People are more comfortable with lcd because they are more familiar with the technology and it doesn’t sound too “exotic” and “expensive to repair”. Also the point made by Steven is a good one that I’ve found to be true with some of my family/friends…..some people actually prefer blinding brightness and a cartoonlike color space.

Even though everyone comments about how nice the picture on my plasma is…..they still buy lcd’s and jack up the color/contrast and brightness to frightening levels.


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