AfterDawn: News

LCD sales increase aided by sales force bias

According to the results of a recent J.D. Power and Associates and Market Force Information survey plasma TVs are at a disadvantage when it comes to recommendations from electronics sales staff. The '2008 Television Retail Insights Report,' released earlier this week, finds that sales people overwhelmingly recommend LCD televisions over plasma.

More than 2,000 mystery shoppers were sent out to determine the knowledge of sales staff and find out what recommendations they are making. They found retail sales people tended to be ignorant of recent developments in plasma technology. Close to 40% told customers that LCD TVs last longer and warned of image burn-in on plasma models.



"While we see that salespeople are aggressively pushing shoppers to LCD sets, it is important for consumers to understand that plasma technology also offers a number of unique advantages, not the least of which is that inch for inch, plasma sets cost less than LCD sets," said Larry Wu, senior director of the technology practice at J.D. Power and Associates. "In addition, compared with most LCD sets, plasma TVs also display deeper blacks and show fast-moving objects better."

They also found a lot of ignorance of the benefits of LCD. Fewer than a quarter mentioned LCD's lower energy consumption and weight.


Written by: Rich Fiscus @ 25 Jul 2008 13:53

• Previous article

• Nokia and Qualcomm settle over mobile phone standards

• Next article

• 'The Dark Knight' spurs increase in DVD revenue leading up to premiere

• 2 comments

• garmoon

  Yeah the store makes more money from LCD sales. Why would that be shocking. I have an Sammy LCD, but my next set will be a plasma. The picture is just plainly better on a plasma.

  26.7.2008 09:48 #1

• nopcbs

  I have a 50" Pioneer plasma. Gorgeous picture, but it chews up the watts and warms up the room.
  
  Those are the only disadvantages vs. LCD, but they are significant enough issues that my next set will likely be an LCD...with all the disadvantages LCD's have: narrow view angle, motion artifacts in more affordable sets, non-replaceable light source in nearly all, lack of true black, you know, the usual stuff.

  28.7.2008 20:45 #2