Audio Video News

In four years, worldwide shipments of LCD TVs will nearly double to 194 million, according to research firm iSuppli. About 54% of those TVs will be capable of displaying high-definition programming, compared with fewer than 15% of LCDs sold in 2007.

In other words, your living room will no longer be the sweetest on the block nor the envy of all your friends and family.

See, by 2012 LCD TVs will be old hat. Your reign as neighborhood home theater king was short, but you probably paid a premium for it. In the first quarter of 2006, 42-inch LCDs cost $2,000 or more, according to iSuppli. Today the average price is less than $1,000. If you want to keep ahead of the Jones', you'll have to buy yourself an OLED TV.

"Consumers no longer want bulky, heavy CRT-TVs that have inferior resolution," iSuppli analyst Riddhi Patel said in a statement. Well, that's hardly a surprise. But aside from envying the slick screens in friends' homes, I think the real factor motivating many later-adopters to buy an LCD is the forthcoming Digital TV switch in 2009. Many people know they need to buy a TV with a digital tuner: But how many digital TVs sold today aren't LCDs?

Other motivators driving LCD growth, according to iSuppli, include the ability to use a desktop PC monitor as a TV, and the pretty thin bezels on many new LCD TVs (they make the screens look even bigger).

Wonder where the plasma will be in 2012. -Rachel Rosmarin

iSuppli