FREEBIES: retailers desperate to move LCD TVs

December 9th, 2008

In an effort to woo consumers to part with their Christmas cash, and as Mr Rudd would say, help save the Australian economy from going into recession, most of the major television manufacturers are offering some fairly good incentives to go to full HD.

The reason, according to industry sources, is that sales of full HD panels have dropped by 30% since the Beijing Olympics boom time. This is good news for purchasers because as well as the manufacturer’s incentives, retailers are prepared to reduce profit margins through discounts in order to make sales.

Craig Mackie, the General Manager of JB Hi-Fi told APC that “Full HD TV sales have slowed down since the largest sell in before the Olympics so to move inventory through the channel and focus on the full HD panel, a number of suppliers have offered incentive products to move the stock through.” Or to bluntly paraphrase, manufacturers are under the gun to convert TVs into cash.

According to Mackie, one of the best value propositions for purchasers is the Panasonic deal where you get a free Wii (worth around $400) with any Full HD Veira Plasma TV (which range in price from $2,549 to $12,999).

Not to be outdone, Samsung is offering an (almost) free BluRay player with selected models of their full HD LCD and Plasma TVs. Like many of these offers, the BDP-1500 is redeemed after you purchase your TV and pay the $30 administration and shipping fee. Full details are available here.

If neither a Wii nor a BluRay are your thing, how about a free TV? LG is offering a free 26” LCD TV (after you pay a $33 shipping and handling cost) with selected Scarlet and other LCD TVs. Based on LG’s previous performance with delivering free TVs, it could be a long wait to get your 26LG30D (non full HD) TV but then again a $33 TV may well be worth the wait. Full details are available Retravision catalogue), it would definitely pay to shop around.

Toshiba on the other hand are giving away a free Toshiba netbook with their Full HD TVs although based on APC reviews of the NB100 Toshiba may be stuck with warehouse of both TVs and NB100s. Full details are available here (PDF).

NEC obviously feel that their TVs are good enough to sell without much of an incentive so they are only giving away a free digital photo frame or DVD movies with their TVs. Details here.

Sony’s promotion however is potentially the most interesting although it takes some time to understand exactly what you are getting. Tying in with the James Bond film Quantum of Solace, we understand that you receive entries to a competition when you purchase a Sony product with the more expensive the product, the more entries you receive. The major prizes include one of seven 007 adventures (or $15,000 in cash to spend on your own adventure) as well as various daily prizes. We don’t fully understand but details are here.

According to Mackie, “Manufacturers are talking about price increases flowing through in the new year so pre-Christmas shopping will give you better value for your money.” Just in case you were thinking about a nice new Full HD TV for Christmas, these incentives may be just what you were waiting for.

Source: APCMag

Entry Filed under: Nintendo Wii