TWO major domestic television makers have slashed the prices of their liquid crystal display (LCD) television sets in a move to grab a larger slice of high-end market.

Shenzhen-based Konka Group, one of the country’s top television and mobile handset manufacturers, announced Sunday that it would slash prices of its high-end LCD television sets by up to 30 percent.

Konka’s price reduction follows an earlier move by Sichuan Changhong, China’s largest television maker, to drastically cut its LCD television sets.

Changhong, which claims to be the world’s number two TV maker, started a campaign in 15 major domestic cities to promote its LCD televisions.

The Sichuan-based TV king, seeking to cash in on the ongoing Olympic Games in Athens, cut its LCD panels by an average of 30 percent to lure consumers.

Facing intensifying competition in a maturing market in China, both domestic and foreign TV makers have to wage intense price wars to grab market share.

Some foreign makers have also slashed the prices of their LCD panels this year in an attempt to fend off domestic rivals.

South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co., for example, announced price cuts of its LCD panels by an average of 18 to 20 percent last month.

As the fastest-growing segment of domestic TV industry, sales of LCD televisions in China is expected to more than double last year’s figure to 165,000 units this year.

Traditional cathode ray tube (CRT) TV sets still have the largest market share in China, but analysts expect new display models like LCD or plasma display panels to gradually replace the traditional models.

Some analysts have said that while LCD televisions are a niche product, current prices are still high for the general consumer. They say that as panel makers ramp up production, the LCD prices are expected to fall as much as 20 percent in the second half on growing supply, further pulling down the prices of LCD televisions.

(Shenzhen Daily August 25, 2004)