I bet last year you were expecting that by now HDTV prices would have significantly dropped. Well bad news for us all here. Prices are still higher than they should have been due to the bad economy we’ve been having this year.

Some analysts over at DisplaySearch said that TV sales for 2009 are projected to drop by 4%. LCD TV sale are expected to grow only 2% next year compared with 22% in 2008 and 77% in 2007. The prices will stay up as panel factories are cutting back on production. The less they produce, the less efficient the whole business becomes and the higher the final prices:

Mr. Semenza [of DisplaySearch] expects that prices for LCD sets 32 inches and smaller will remain fairly stable. Retail prices on TVs 42 inches and larger will not decline as fast as they have in years past.

We hate that don’t we? Bad economy! You’ve been a really bad economy this year!

via NYTimes