HIGHER TECH, LOWER PRICES EVERYDAY ELECTRONICS EVEN MORE AFFORDABLE.Byline: Candice Choi Staff Writer Plasma televisions and liquid crystal display liquid crystal display (LCD) Optoelectronic device used in displays for watches, calculators, notebook computers, and other electronic devices. Current passed through specific portions of the liquid crystal solution causes the crystals to align, blocking the passage of light. monitors are more affordable these days as prices on a range of electronic goods continue to tumble. A study by the NPD Group The NPD Group, Inc. is a leading global market research company[1] founded in 1967 and provides consumer and retail information to manufacturers and retailers. Using actual sales data from retailers and distributors as well as consumer-reported purchasing behavior, NPD in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of found a basket of 27 electronic goods and gadgets costs 19 percent less now than a year ago. Everything from desktop computers to digital cameras is getting cheaper as the technologies become more widespread. Specifically, the total cost of the shopping list fell to $10,825 from $16,999 a year ago. Compared with 2003, prices for the same items fell by 36 percent. The result is rising interest in new technologies like plasma TVs A flat panel TV that uses the plasma display technology. See flat panel TV, plasma display and LCD vs. plasma. , said Mike Kugel ku·gel n. A baked pudding of noodles or potatoes, eggs, and seasonings, traditionally eaten by Jews on the Sabbath. [Yiddish kugel, ball (from its puffed-up shape), from Middle High German. , manager of the Best Buy in Woodland Hills. Today a plasma TV sells for about $1,900; they were about $10,000 when they first hit the market. ``Very few people were buying them a few years ago. Now they're a lot more mainstream and more people are buying them,'' he said. Kugel said he expects the prices of plasma TVs to continuing dropping dramatically. That doesn't necessarily mean now is a better time to buy - or that there is any value in waiting for prices to fall further, said Stephen Baker For other persons of the same name, see Steven Baker (disambiguation). Stephen Baker (born August 30, 1964 in San Antonio, Texas) was a former professional American football player who was selected by the New York Giants in the 3rd round of the 1987 NFL Draft. , analyst with the NPD Group. ``There's always going to be something faster, cheaper or smaller coming out. You could wait two years for the prices of plasma TVs to come down, but then there might be something better on the market,'' he said. There is no ``right time'' to buy; the value of a product depends on the buyer, Baker said. ``That's the age-old question - you should buy what you can afford. There's a value beyond what you pay,'' Baker said. Prices on electronic goods typically bottom out once new technologies are introduced, Kugel said. For example, after the advent of digital cameras, 35mm cameras became much more affordable. MP3 players A digital music player that supports the MP3 format, which was the audio format that started a revolution in online music downloads and distribution. All portable music players, the iPod being the most popular, support MP3 along with one or more other audio formats. are experiencing the ``biggest movement in price,'' Kugel said. ``It's come down tremendously,'' he said. DVD players A stand-alone device that plays DVDs. It contains a DVD drive and the electronics to decode the digital video. The device may play only manufactured DVDs, or it may be able to play DVD-R, DVD-RW and DVD+RW discs. DVD players are cabled to a TV or home theater system for display. are seeing major dips in price too over the past several years. Some now sell for as low as $50. The laws of supply and demand are suspended in the electronics industry, Baker said; higher demand doesn't always mean higher prices. A car CD receiver fell from $173 to $158. A 128 megabyte One million bytes, or more precisely 1,048,576 bytes. Also MB, Mbyte and M-byte. See mega and space/time. (unit) megabyte - (MB, colloquially "meg") 2^20 = 1,048,576 bytes = 1024 kilobytes. 1024 megabytes are one gigabyte. memory card for digital cameras declined from $55 to $31, and a 20-gigabyte high-definition music player fell from $375 to $298 over the same time frame. Items that also reported declines were the 42-inch plasma TV, which fell 7 percent, while a 17-inch LCD PC monitor dropped 5 percent and prices on desktop PCs saw a 3 percent decline from a year ago. Prices on 13 items rose from December to January, which is typical since retailers hike up Verb 1. hike up - pull up; "He hitched up his socks and pants" hitch up pull - apply force so as to cause motion towards the source of the motion; "Pull the rope"; "Pull the handle towards you"; "pull the string gently"; "pull the trigger of the gun"; "pull prices after the holidays. A majority of those items were traditional electronic goods that typically see a peak in sales during the holidays. Candice Choi, (818) 713-3634 candice.choi(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): drawing, photo, box Drawing: (color) no caption (Electronics) Warren Huskey/Staff Artist Photo: (color) Ford Harding, 3, watches television as his father, Cory, center, compares features and prices in the flat panel television section of Best Buy in Woodland Hills. John Lazar/Staff Photographer Box: Consumer electronics prices are falling. Here's what you can save. SOURCE: NPD Group |
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