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NEW YORK - The bulky, squarish, heavy picture tube, the standard television technology for more than 60 years, is heading for the dustbin of history much faster than anyone expected.
This year, the number of TV models in the United States that use glass cathode-ray tubes (CRT) to produce an image has been reduced sharply. By next year, even fewer such televisions will be made, and fewer retailers will sell them.
"After the holidays, the days of picture-tube TVs are gone,'' said Geoff Shavey, the TV buyer for Costco. "One year from now, we will not sell picture-tube TVs.''
Costco, a discount warehouse chain, has already cut its CRT offerings to three models this year, from 10 in 2005.
Instead, Costco and other retailers are selling growing numbers of wide-screen plasma and liquid-crystal display flat-panel TVs, which are more expensive than traditional TVs. But prices for both types continue to drop: 42-inch plasma TVs can be bought for less than $2,000, and the smallest flat-panel sets will soon be fairly close in price to their tube counterparts.
Shavey said that a 32-inch wide-screen LCD television was available for $700 (U.S.) at his stores, within striking distance of a tube set of similar size. But he added, "The demand for picture-tube TVs is far off from what it was one year ago.''
One reason is that flat-panel TVs make a strong design statement, prompting women to want to swap their old sets for sleeker ones, said Mike Vitelli, a vice president at Best Buy.
"For the first time in history, women care about the TV that comes in the house," Vitelli said. "Men are not just getting permission to buy a flat-screen TVs they're getting directed to do so."
Soon, he said, Best Buy will sell picture-tube TVs only under its Insignia house label.
Consumer electronics companies also want out of the tube TV business, in part because profit margins have become so thin. The U.S. government has mandated that all TVs eventually include a built-in digital tuner to receive over-the-air digital broadcasts, and while even picture-tube sets are being made compliant, manufacturers would rather switch to selling flat-panel TVs, which can generate bigger profits.
"The end of picture-tube TVs is accelerating faster than a lot of us expected," said Randy Waynick, a senior vice president for Sony Electronics. The company, which offered 10 tube models two years ago, will pare that number to two next year, both of them wide screens. "Picture-tube TV sales reductions were far greater than forecast," Waynick said.
Even if the profit margins were healthy, picture-tube TVs would be ill-suited for a market that wants ever-larger screens. Picture-tube TVs were once made as large as 40 inches corner to corner, but the units were the size of baby elephants, sometimes weighing hundreds of pounds and protruding several feet from the wall.
Panasonic is getting out of the picture-tube business altogether. A year ago, the company offered 30 picture-tube models in the United States; now it sells one, a 20-inch analog set. "This year will be the last year for Panasonic picture-tube TVs," said Andrew Nelkin, a Panasonic vice president.
Toshiba has cut its picture-tube models to 13 from 35 last year and expects the number in 2007 to be "significantly reduced,'' said Scott Ramirez, a vice president of marketing. "Beyond 2007, the picture-tube business is very questionable for any company," he said.
In 2004, picture-tube TVs represented 78 per cent of the market but will account for only 54 per cent this year, according to the Consumer Electronics Association, a trade group. In the same period, sales of flat-panel units have jumped from 12 per cent of all TVs sold to an expected 37 per cent this year. Front- and rear-projection TVs will account for about 9 per cent of sales in 2006, according to the group.
"CRT as a technology is fading out of the market," said Sean Wargo, director of industry analysis for the association.
The ascendance of flat-panel TVs signals another sea change for the TV industry: the switch from somewhat square screens to wide rectangular ones. The vast majority of flat-panel TVs are built in a wide-screen shape that allows movies to fill all or most of the screen. More television series are being produced for this format, and consumers are growing more accustomed to viewing programs this way, electronics executives say.
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