Re: HDTV

[Dib9@aol.com]

You forget a couple of economic concepts: competition and substitution.  Part
of the reason that the cost of HDTVs is so high right now is that there is
very little demand so very few are being manufactured and the costs of
manufacturing are spread over a very few number of sets.  As more sets are
manufactured, the cost per set will be less.  As the demand for sets increase
as we move towards the deadline, more sets will be manufactured by more
companies and as the companies compete for buyers they will bring down their
prices.  It's one of the beauties of capitalism.  As demand grows, more
suppliers enter the market and drive down prices.  The HDTV manufacturers will
also be competing with converters for traditional TVs so they will have to
bring their prices down or people will just substitute converters for new HDTV
sets.  

Prices for most new technologies in consumer electronics start high and drop
quickly as the technology becomes widely used.  This has happened with
calculators, VCRs, computers, and satellite TV systems.  

Dan Billings
Bowdoinham, Maine

In a message dated 12/23/98 9:57:14 AM EST, Rob Landry  writes:

<< Maybe. On the other hand, if I were a manufacturer of DTV sets, and I
 knew that every TV viewer in America would be forced to buy one in the
 next few years, I wouldn't have much of an incentive to lower my prices.>>

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