North American Flat-Panel Sales Keep Rising

May 28, 2009 By Stephen Silver

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Despite the down economy, sales of flat-panel TVs have continued to jump, rising 17.3 percent early this year over the same period last year in combined LCD and plasma sales in the U.S. and Canada. That's according to numbers released this week by research firm iSuppli Corp.

The switch was accomplished largely due to purchases of smaller and less-expensive models.

“There has been a major shift in flat-panel television purchasing price points,” iSuppli analyst Tina Tseng said as part of the announcement. “In the first quarter of 2009, 68.9 percent of U.S. television purchases were of sets priced less than $1,000, according to a survey conducted by iSuppli’s U.S. Television Consumer Preference Analysis service. This is up from 62.8 percent in the second quarter of 2008.”