CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Overall U.S. HDTV unit shipments, including LCD TVs, plasma TVs, and hometheater and entertainment front projectors, dropped 3 percent to 34.4 million units from 2012, according to research released by Quixel Research.
The firm’s “Fourth Quarter 2013 USA LCD TV Market Report” revealed that LCD TV sales were up by a slim margin of 0.6 percent, ending the year with 32.4 million units. However, the slight gain was offset by a 45 percent decline in plasma TV unit shipments, resulting in a total of 1.8 million units sold for the year, said Jill Turcic, Quixel Research senior analyst and managing director.
Meanwhile, Quixel’s “Home Theater and Entertainment Front Projector Market Report” showed that home-theater projector sales were up 12 percent in 2013 to end the year with 177,000 units shipped.
“The total market decline can largely be explained by the continued deterioration of plasma TV sales as well as the relatively lackluster year of new product offerings among all categories in 2013,” stated Turcic. “Although long considered the benchmark for picture quality by many industry insiders, in the end, that hasn’t been enough for plasma TV to remain competitive in the unsparing world of high-volume, low-cost manufacturing.”
“Looking ahead, we expect UHD will be the next big thing in the TV market in 2014, particularly in the back half of the year,” she continued. “While UHD sales were barely a blip on the radar for 2013, that won’t be the case for long as more LCD TV offerings hit retailers later this year and front projectors come to play in 2015.”
Quixel’s “Q4 2013 USA LCD TV Forecast” put Ultra HD shipments at close to 1 million units for 2014 as the total LCD TV market is expected to grow slightly to nearly 33 million units.
