Samsung and Sony stop retailers from offering discounts on TV prices, The Wall Street Journal reports-- a tactic aiming to protect profits while helping retailers against the "cutthroat online competition."
The policies prevent US retailers from "advertising or selling televisions in stores or online for less than the prices set by the manufacturers." The reason? Sliding TV prices, of course.
According to the CEA, flat-screen TV prices are on a 3 year long 15% slide, even as average consumer TV sizes grow. Meanwhile all the major TV makers (bar Samsung) are making heavy losses.
Not to mention consumers are buying less TVs...
Some companies already have such policies in place-- Apple does it, while Sony restricts the discounting of electronics such as video cameras and games consoles.
The problems of CE pricing have already been highlighted earlier this year at the April IFA Global Press Conference. According to gfu Supervisory Board Chairman Dr. Rainer Hecker, the industry must move from value destruction to value oriented.
In other words, business must be profitable, and we can no longer sell price as the main attraction. But will consumers pay the surely higher TV prices of the future?
Go Sony, Samsung Rein in Retailers' Discounts on TVs (WSJ.com)