Revenue from the sale of consumer electronics took a hit in February, affecting even the once skyrocketing category of plasma TVs, according to The NPD Group’s retail tracking service.
Plasma TV dollar volume dropped 16 percent in February compared to February 2006, the first ever year-over-year decline.
Price declines drove the revenue loss with average prices down more than 35 percent from February 2006. Despite a 30 percent increase in unit sales, plasma TVs only generated $181 million in February, compared to the nearly $216 million in February 2006. The average price of a plasma TV in February was $1688, the second lowest price in three years, just behind November 2006 when prices bottomed out at $1672.
Forty-two-inch plasmas were the best-selling screen size based on units in February, followed by 50in, which are continuing to grow in popularity and taking share from the 42in sets. Fifty-inch plasmas, however, were the top revenue producers, with an average price of $2040.
Despite a tough month for most consumer electronics categories, TV sales dominated the consumer electronics space, bringing in more than $900 million in revenue, even though unit sales were down 18 percent and revenue was off by 13 percent compared to last February. LCD TVs showed the highest revenue growth with a 58 percent dollar volume increase over February 2006.
For more information, visit www.npd.com.
