Digital devices make strides; old standbys stay
Jeff Linville -- Furniture Today, May 26, 2003
Arlington, Va. — Cutting-edge digital video devices such as high-definition televisions and digital signal receivers are driving interest in consumer electronics, but the old standbys remain a big part of the business, according to figures from the Consumer Electronics Assn. here.
Consumers might need bigger home entertainment centers to handle all the new technology available for home theater systems, including wide-screen-format TVs, digital video disc players and set-top boxes that translate digital signals for viewing on old-fashioned analog TVs.
Sales of digital TVs continue to grow, but the average consumer is still buying traditional TVs, judging by manufacturers' unit sales to dealers as reported to the CEA. From the beginning of the year through April 11, 5.09 million stand-alone analog TVs were sold, more than six times the 832,000 digital TVs sold, including plasma and liquid-crystal display technologies.
Despite all the hoopla over flat-screen TVs, unit sales of old-style TVs are down only 3.9% from the same period in 2002. Another 1 million-plus analog TVs were sold in combination packs: 800,000 TV/VCR combos and 275,000 TV/DVD combos.
A year ago, TV/DVD sets were almost a novelty, with only 56,000 sold, far less than the 1.2 million TV/VCR sets sold. This year, however, TV/DVD sales are nearly five times as high.
Sales of projection Tvs, meanwhile, dropped 40% from 213,000 in the first 15 weeks of 2002 to 127,000 for the same period this year.
These figures refer only to unit sales, not dollar amounts. Last year, plunging VCR prices led to a sharp increase in units sold. This year, however, VCR totals are down 31% from 2.9 million to 2 million units. DVD sales were virtually identical to VCR sales at this point last year, but now greatly exceed those, having climbed 24% for the first 15 weeks from 2.9 million to 3.6 million.
Set-top digital-to-analog receivers are selling much faster this year, increasing 162% to 49,929 through March 31, according to Gary Shapiro, CEA president and chief executive officer. He said the receivers are more desirable "because of the increased availability and amount of compelling DTV programming." The cumulative number of receivers sold since they reached the retail marketplace in 1999 is 348,000 units, he said.
