That didn’t save makers of contemporary sleek flat-panel TVs from suffering along with the rest of the world economy last year.<\/p>\n
But this year, things are looking up: shoppers have kept on buying new televisions.<\/p>\n
Next month, one of the world’s biggest trade fairs exhibiting new TVs opens its doors in the German capital of Berlin.<\/p>\n
IFA, taking place September 4-9, competes with the world’s top gadgets fair, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), held every January in the US city Las Vegas, to grab the attention of retailers and shoppers.<\/p>\n
IFA is a venue for major companies to release new products and gain some bounce in blogs and magazines before holiday-season gift- buying commences.<\/p>\n
The organizers are sensitive when reminded that the Berlin fair is not quite as big an event as the CES, and claim that their own is “the biggest trade fair of its type in the world,” since IFA is also a showcase for broadcasting companies.<\/p>\n
Unlike the CES, IFA encourages the general public to attend.<\/p>\n
Last year IFA added home appliances, ranging from washing machines and dishwashers to electric razors, to its eclectic product mix.<\/p>\n
The flat-panel television – either the liquid-crystal-display (LCD) or plasma variety – continues to dominate the event, which is co-organized by a German consumer electronics industry association, the GFU.<\/p>\n
Frank Bolten, one of the three GFU directors and an executive at Sharp, a Japanese maker of LCD televisions, has offered some numbers to show what a huge business flat panels are and why sales of the panels seem to be almost recession-proof.<\/p>\n
“In the last quarter of last year, sales did, in fact, slump,” he said. “What was happening was that stocks were being reduced.<\/p>\n
It’s obvious. When (merchants) have to reduce costs, they reduce inventory.<\/p>\n
“At the start of this year, the market recovered as if that blip had never happened.<\/p>\n
“Right now, we are once again expecting the world market for LCD TVs to be roughly at the level that we were forecasting one year ago: 127 million units, meaning we’re back on track to annual sales growth of 22 per cent,” Bolten said.<\/p>\n
Industry experts believe two effects are sustaining world demand television sets.<\/p>\n
One is continued demand in emerging markets, where people rising out of poverty no longer live hand-to-mouth and are buying their first televisions.<\/p>\n
The other effect is eagerness among more affluent consumers to trade up to flatter, bigger screens.<\/p>\n
That has sent the TV business into hyperdrive.<\/p>\n
In the days when chunky cathode-ray tube (CRT) televisions were the norm, manufacturers sold 71 million analogue TVs worldwide every year.<\/p>\n
Annual sales of the new-generation televisions are now steady at 140 million per year worldwide, Bolton said during a preview presentation in his capacity as GFU director.<\/p>\n
While TV sales remain depressed in some parts of Europe, they are again booming in Germany, and Bolten partly traces this to an urge among Germans to cut down on expensive holidays and dining out and instead spend the money on making the home a more agreeable place to hang out.<\/p>\n
Upgrading the TV to a bigger, flatter screen is one way to make long evenings on tighter budget that much more bearable.<\/p>\n
“You want to make it nice at home when nasty things are going on outside,” said Roland Stehle, GFU spokesman.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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