According to industry analysts, the fourth quarter of 2008 saw global TV shipments drop and 2009 may bring the first decline in PC sales since 2001.
Global shipments of televisions dropped 5% in the last quarter of 2008, the first year-over-year decline in over two years, according to market research firm DisplaySearch. Shipments of televisions during the fourth quarter, at 57.7 million, dropped from more than 60 million shipped during the same period in 2007.
Research firm IDC expects the current recession will continue to adversely affect the PC market as well. IDC's Loren Loverde said that the firm's most recent forecast for 2009 — four-percent growth — will likely not be met. "As things sink in, it could easily be in negative territory," said Loverde.
Further news on the ongoing saga of the conversion to over-the-air digital television transmission. Though a sizable backlog still exists for DTV converter box coupons, the National telecommunications Information Administration said it can clear the four-million-strong waiting list in the next two to three weeks. The recently-passed $789 billion federal stimulus package contained monies to restart the DTV box coupons, enabling the NTIA to ramp up sending them out to consumers.
Meanwhile, the much-ballyhooed TV "tsunami" has yet to reach its predicted point break, there are reports of analog TVs hitting the secondary market with increasing regularity. More than 400 of the approximately 1,800 broadcast television stations nationwide already have made the conversion. With that, the Federal Communications Commission has also mandated that at least one of the top four network affiliates — ABC, CBS, NBC or FOX — broadcast in analog in each market until the new June 12th DTV cutoff date.
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Source: E-Scrap News, Feb. 20, 2009
