In 2013 if you told me that in 3 years that I would buy a 40 inch smart TV for only Ksh30,000 I would think you have a loose nut somewhere but that is the reality now. LED TVs are becoming slimmer and much cheaper as time goes by. Plasma TVs have dissapeared almost completely from showrooms and shops in favour of lighter and cheaper LED back-light technology.
Back in 2013 when the country was not sure about the digital migration, Digital TVs were very expensive (as compared to now). A 32 Inch LG digital TV was in the range of Ksh38,000. An year after that you could guess the cost of a TV by its size. A 32 Inch for 30K, a 42 inch for 40k and so on.
Right now in 2016 the influx of models like Skyworth, Teqworld, Mooved, Finlux, TCL, Hisense and Hotpoint have driven TV costs down by as much as 40 percent. What do we expect in the future
1.Big trouble for “Big” TV Brands.
You don’t want to be a salesperson in LG, Samsung or Sony right now. Thats becues sales figures are dipping even lower with every passing month. These mainstream TV manufacturers have also adjusted their prices, buy not as low as the other newer models. It’s true that they have the best products but so does Hisense, Skyworth and the TCL lot. Anisuma which is the local Sony products distributer is also the company that sells Skyworth. Its brilliant move to compete with yourself and the overall winner being the customer.
2. Low quality products to match competition
This is already happening in the market. A perfect example is the size of speakers in an LG TV. If you bought a 2016 LG TV model you know what I am talking about. The sound quality does not match the picture quality at all.
You will continue to see the same in the quality of plastic used, cheap packaging, edge lit LED backlight (instead of Full LED)
Read What Are the Different Types of LED TVs?
3. Even more cheaper TV sets for the Christmas season
If you are planing to take advantage of the low prices now then wait until the Holiday season in December.
4. Low Dvbt2 decoder sales
Almost all TVs being sold now are Digital TVs so there will be no need of buying a separate free to air digital set top box. With pay TV however their marketing plan is what will dictate the number of customers they will attract. Good and fresh content will always attract customers.
5. Uptake in sales of TV accessories
Accessories like HDMI cables, flash disks, external hard disks, optical cables, smart TV dongles, antennas and coaxial cables are the hottest things to sell right now. Television cannot be enjoyed fully without these accessories especially the most important them of all, the TV guard.
6. Slow death for the DVD player
With movies now being watched from USB devices, the number of bootleg DVD sales will go down and thus starting the slow death of the DVD player. A simple 16GB USB drive can replace an expensive Blu-ray player and discs for the same Full HD picture quality.
7. The Android based Smart TV
Android operating system is the easiest form of a smart TV any TV manufacturer can implement. The apps are almost limitless plus updates can be easily done on the open source platform. This is in sharp contrast to what the Big TV brands gave us from the beginning. Each having their own sophisticated operating system whose updates are not that frequent plus the limiting apps that can be downloaded only from the manufacturers website.
Which, in your own opinion, is the best buy for 50 inch smart TV?
Ni kunoma! But we don’t know what the big TV companies have in store for the market. All I can say is let’s wait n see.
Its true let’s wait and see. The final winner is the customer who will ultimately get lower prices and hopefully better quality products