Reason For Recent Price Drop in LCD and Plasma Televisions

It has been revealed that certain major flat-panel TV makers were involved in price fixing during the period between 2001 and 2006.

clipped from www.techradar.com LCD TV makers in dire straits as profits wilt Recession and price-fixing investigation create perfect storm Barely three months ago, we were talking of booming times for flat-panel TV makers as competition drove sales relentlessly upwards, yet now a consumer-spending slump is combining with legal wrangles to paint a very different picture. Japan's Sharp joined several other manufacturers at the weekend in reducing the number of LCD panels it will make in the coming months. While it remains to be seen how the outcome will hurt the firms concerned, it is known that one company came forward and told the US Department of Justice about the price fixing in exchange for immunity from prosecution. There are now suggestions that, rather than through intense competition, the halving of LCD prices seen since the end of 2006 may have been due to the end of the cosy price-fixing deals.