IHS iSuppli: Flat-Panel TV Shipments to Fall for First Time

27 Mar, 2012 By: Chris Tribbey

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For the first time ever, shipments of flat-panel TVs are expected to fall in 2012, with the market for them continuing to prove weak through 2015, according to a new report from IHS iSuppli.

American shipments of flat-panel TVs — which include LCDs, plasmas and the dwindling rear-projection TV market — are forecasted to drop to 37.1 million, down 5% from 39.1 million in 2011. The writing already was on the wall in 2011, according to the research firm, when shipments were up from 2010 by just 1%.

“The U.S. flat-panel television market has never declined on an annual basis, even at the height of the recession in 2008 and 2009,” said Lisa Hatamiya, TV research analyst for IHS. “The decline starting this year suggests that demand may have crested for the mature U.S. TV market.”

She said that U.S. sales now are driven by consumers replacing older flat-panel sets, as opposed to developing regions of the world where buyers are making their first-ever purchase of the sets.

Consumer electronics companies may have been overly optimistic in early 2011, shipping more sets than consumers demanded and ensuing price cuts to move excess product cut deeply into their profits, Hatamiya continued.

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