By Ken Park – Senior Manager, Korean FPD Market and Technology Research, DisplaySearch

With all the promotional noise for LED backlights, huge screens and 3D viewing, it’s easy to overlook small CRT sets sitting quietly in the darker corners of retailers. However, recently my attention was caught by a retro-styled 14” CRT, shown in Figure 1. For a bit of fun, I compared this CRT set to an old CRT TV that vanished long, long ago.

Figure 1: LGE 14” CRT TV and an Older Model

This retro type of CRT TV doesn’t look bad at all, even when compared with a fashionable LCD TV Rather, it revived old childhood memories and had a warm and friendly feeling compared to a cold high-tech product; in the same way that an analog wristwatch is preferable to a digital one.

While it’s an undoubted truth that flat panel TVs continue to eat into the share of CRT TVs but the question of timing or speed of transition remains. While China has been transitioning to LCD TV extremely rapidly, it remains to be seen if other emerging regions have such rapid potential this year.

During Q1’10, retail price reductions were much slower than expected for smaller LCD TV sizes, due to high panel cost and low margins of OEMs or brands. This appears to have continued in China during the May Golden Week. As a result, retailers as well as brands appear to be focusing on large sized LED-backlit LCD TVs or 3D TVs for better margin.

Cheap CRT TVs remain a business opportunity to serve consumers in less-developed countries. Their robustness, tolerance of poor electrical supply quality and good value for money ensures them a place in markets with analog broadcasts, where consumers have a strictly functional need from their TV set. Incredibly, many set makers also make better margins on legacy CRT products than on their shiny LCD sets!

Therefore, for the time being, CRT TV will be a niche market generating profit on stable demands from emerging regions.