LG announces trends in television buying behavior

According to the survey, conducted to show real world, real time buying behavior of likely TV purchasers, consumers are excited about purchasing large and new high definition TVs (HD TVs) and are willing to spend significant amount of money, even though they are confused by terminologies and choices. The ideal consumer choice is a 42" HD flat TV from a major consumer electronic vendor in a familiar retail environment.

The web-based survey was held among 1,200 consumers in the USA, inclined to buying a TV in the near future, with an average income of US $110,000 a year. The average age of respondents was 47 years.

"High-definition is being heralded as the biggest thing to happen to the television since colour. HD is a wide screen, high-resolution format that has five times more information on the screen than conventional television. Size is everything in televisions - consumers' focus on large screens and we found the 42-inch screen to be the most sought after. To satisfy market demand, at LG we will focus on manufacturing innovative 42 inch television sets," said C H Lee, President, LG Electronics Gulf FZE.

Price ranked second to screen size in influencing purchasing decisions, while aspect ratio was considered least important. Only 62 per cent of the respondents rated aspect ratio to be an influencer in buying television sets.

Plasma displays scored over LCD TVs, projection TVs and traditional tube TVs - 38 per cent voted for plasma TVs while 36 per cent preferred LCD TVs. Among projection TVs, Digital Light Processing (DLP) projection TVs grabbed 46 per cent of the technology preference rate, leaving 19 per cent preferring LCD projection TVs.

Consumers preferred to buy television sets in consumer electronic stores (55%) compared to warehouse stores (11%) and online retailers (7%).

"Our high-end plasma TV, the 42 inch PY1 series, boasts of a luxurious design and immaculate picture quality, while our mass market model, the 42 inch PX4 series, offers the best quality in its range with our image enhancing technology 'film filter' with the world's best 10,000:1 contrast ratio," said Lee.

LG is the market leader in the PDP TV segment in 17 countries including the UK, Germany, Spain, Australia, Saudi Arabia, and South Africa; the company aims to be the market leader in 30 countries by 2005. By focusing on strategic linkages between home audio-video, car infortainment and mobile audio-video business, LG aims to rank among the top three global players in the digital display and media segment by 2007.