DealerData: The Plasma Sweet Spot

Quixel Research, a firm that tracks the video display marketing recently reported a signficant decrease in the price for 50-inch PlasmaTVs. The company’s review of the second quarter for 2006 shows that 50-inch unit share of the Plasma TV category grew 40 percent over Q1 2006 sales, but that the average selling price for a 50-59-inch plasma TVs fell from $5,118 in Q2 2005 to $3,218 in Q2 2006. Overall, the segment declined 62 percent year-to-year.

“Value priced models were selling for as low as $1,999 in club stores. These units sold in significant volumes and even outpaced the Microdisplay category at the 50-inch size” sais Tamaryn Pratt, Quixel Research’s principal, in a statement. Quixel also found that the 50- to 59-inch unit share accounted for 35 percent of the total Plasma TV category in the second quarter 2006 compared to 30 percent in the first quarter 2006.

Additionally the firm reported that on a quarterly and yearly basis, revenues and unit sales both increased for the Plasma TV category. Revenues were up 10 percent from $1.4B in Q1 2006 to $1.6B in Q2 2006 and on a year-to-year basis increased from $1.1B, which was a 37 percent increase. Quixel believes falling ASPs bolstered volumes in the second quarter, when sales rose 17 percent from Q1 2006 to Q2 2006 and 78 percent from Q2 2005 to Q2 2006.