This IDC study examines the worldwide market for LCD televisions. It is obvious that the price wars in the years ahead look to be nasty for LCD TV vendors, although they will no doubt be watched with glee by consumers, knowing that absolute category prices are coming down and that their favorite brand names have to follow suit to remain competitive. In fact, the first wave of LCD TV vendor consolidation may not claim the new kids on the block but may instead strike first at diversified companies such as HP, Mitsubishi, or Hitachi that have established equity levels borne from a wide variety of products.

"Because LCD TVs are just a line item in the books of the aforementioned expensive infrastructure electronics entities, their management may realize sooner rather than later that it is simply not worth it to try to compete with the top display brands while slogging in the ASP mud with the no-name companies. Therefore, focused niche brands such as ILO or Maxent may survive the short term, and be able to stick around long enough to make decent money before being displaced to other more price-sensitive markets." ? Eric Haruki, research manager, IDC's Displays and Projectors research