Sony’s New 37” LCD RPTV Aims for a Niche Market
June 7th, 2007By Paul Gagnon, Director of North American TV Research
As the market for RPTVs gives way to ever larger flat panels, many manufacturers are forced to the largest sizes (55”+) where 1080p and a significant price advantage offer shelter from the onslaught of FPD growth. However, these enormous screen sizes are only acceptable to a limited number of buyers, many of whom prefer not to have the TV dominate the living room—unless of course, they can afford a super sexy flat panel that makes them the envy of their neighbors.
Rear projection TVs are plagued with the stigma of big boxy cabinets, though many of today’s modern microdisplay (3LCD, DLP, LCOS) models offer substantially smaller, lightweight cabinets that are less of an eyesore. I’ll admit it. I still have a 51” CRT RPTV that, though having a great HD picture with excellent contrast and color, is a bit of an eyesore standing like a monolith in my living room. And I will probably upgrade to a wall-mounted flat panel at some point in the not-to-distant future. But I’m not constrained with existing, sometimes expensive, cabinetry housing older 32” or 36” CRT TVs as many households are.
So how does this relate to Sony’s new 37” LCD RPTV?
Sony built this model aimed squarely at these consumers that do not want to sacrifice their living room furniture, which houses much more than the TV typically, just to purchase a flat panel and all new furniture for their components and knick-knacks. Besides, many flat panel TVs, when accounting for the width and table stand, can be a tight fit in this cabinetry designed for 32” or 36” 4:3 with little room on the sides to fit a similar sizes LCD. Sometimes this can require a smaller widescreen flat panel than the CRT it’s replacing.
Sony’s KDF37H1000 is about an inch narrower than some comparable 37” LCDs, which might be enough to make the cut if width is an issue. The price, at $999, is also about $200-300 less expensive than a comparable flat panel, and since it’s going in a cabinet, the form factor and depth is less of an issue. But other drawbacks of the MD RPTV form factor, such as brightness hotspots, vertical viewing angle and bulb replacements might offset some of those advantages.
What do you think? Can this niche approach help to mitigate the declining MD RPTV market? Most MD RPTV manufacturers have focused product development on minimizing the visual mass as much as possible and Mitsubishi recently announced new LCD TVs with a much narrower screen bezel to place the focus on the picture, rather than the cabinetry and maybe squeeze a larger TV in a fixed cabinet or media niche. Will other flat panel manufacturers follow suit?
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