LCDs for HA (was Re: FS: (18) LCD . . . )

["Robert Green" <ROBERT_GREEN1963@xxxxxxxxx>]

"Dave Houston" <nobody@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:46ceb23e.35690109@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> "Robert Green" <ROBERT_GREEN1963@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> >The big LCD glut is here.  Over a dozen new LCD plants have opened
recently
> >and the fierce competition will be driving down prices relentlessly.
Those
> >holding old inventory are really going to take an ass-whupping.  Most
> >consumers will end up with some great deals in the coming year unless
> >something like the lure of free shipping and a small markdown overcome
their
> >senses.
>
> The glut has been here for some time, especially in the smaller sizes. I
> bought a Viewsonic QB19wb about a year ago from buy.com for less than
$200.
> It has performed flawlessly.

Even those prices are going to seem high very shortly.  The demand for LCDs
is very elastic.  People find it easy to justify replacing a CRT with a few
years left when LCDs cross a certain price threshold.  $200 was one of those
price points and $100 is very likely to turn out to be another.  After all,
you get some desk space back, a lower electric bill, extremely sharp corner
resolution and other benefits.  What's not to like?

Well, I'll tell you!  (-:  Now that I've deployed a few I've found it's
often not until you buy one that you understand what "native resolution"
means and the nuances of various "dead pixel policies."  Dead pixels, for
certain applications, pretty much mean "get a new monitor" and for you to
use the star-speckled one for word processing.  What I dislike the most
about LCD panels is that the angle of view almost never equals that of a
good CRT.  I know it on my workbench, where I consigned the dead pixel CTX
display I bought.  I could read the old screen standing or sitting.  Not so
the new LCD.

I guess I need an auto-face tracking camera mounted on the top of the screen
and some sort of pan and tilt mount to keep the screen pointed at me no
matter whether I am standing or sitting.   I could probably get by with some
sort of jumbo "day/night" mirror mount for the screen that I could "flip" to
cover the sitting and standing positions. Or I could just put the old
Viewsonic CRT back on the bench.  It turns out that it's the best choice for
connecting to the wide variety of PC's that find their way to the bench top
because CRT's don't suffer from native resolution issues.  The LCD was cool
in the beginning, but all in all, for that specific app, the CRT still
rules.

As for the glut, I define the word to mean putting SO much product out on
the market at SUCH a low price that more than one manufacturer goes belly up
or exits the market as a result.  I don't think it's going to happen this
year, but it could easily happen after the next.  It could just as easily be
true that the coming switch to HD TV will increase the demand for panels.
In that case, the point where prices stop sliding could still be a far way
off.   I suspect that the end price of an LCD monitor will eventually bottom
out very close to the cost of the raw materials and the energy used to make
and move them.  That would put a 19" monitor in the $30-60 range from my
very rough calculations.

I just priced mass storage $ per gigabyte on some 300GB Maxtor PATA's that
were on sale for $60.  That's 20 cents a gigabyte.  When 60MB disks were
popular and cost $300 that worked out to about $5,000 per gig, at least it
does if I didn't misplace a decimal or three at three AM.  (-:    Too bad we
haven't pursued increasing solar panel efficiency with the same vigor or
success.  Maybe if we elect the son of solar panel CEO instead of a Texas
oilman as president, we'll see some motion in that direction.

--
Bobby G.