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HDTV sales look uncertain as consumers lose interest: report

There's a lot of chatter that debuting a product at CES doesn't necessarily help it anymore, and that might go double for televisions this year, according to new research.
Written by Rachel King, Contributor

CES 2012, the world's largest consumer technology trade show, comes to a close today. Every year, the trade show seems to only get bigger, and 2012 was no exception.

To put it into perspective, this year's show hosted more than 3,100 companies showcasing over 20,000 products on the floor of the Las Vegas Convention Center, taking up more than 1.85 million net square feet of exhibit space.

But those numbers don't matter as much as the sales figures that these companies are looking for once the show is done and these products become released throughout the year.

One area where predictions seem to be debatable is televisions. HDTVs were in the spotlight big time at CES this year, especially with Lenovo's Android 4.0 SmartTV and LG's 55-inch 3D OLED TV, and Samsung's ES8000 LED SmartTV.

Yet, TV manufactures would not be pleased by Accenture's forecast released during CES, which posits that consumers will buy fewer televisions this year as they start favoring other entertainment devices and electronics -- primarily laptops, desktops, tablets and smartphones -- for consuming multimedia content.

However, that goes against a recent survey published by NPD DisplaySearch that found HDTV shipments with larger screens and LCD technology will grow in 2012. Of course, the keyword there could be "shipments" as that doesn't necessarily mean sales, but one would argue based on that study that the demand is more likely there than not.

Some of the factors that would incline consumers to buy a new television, according to Accenture, include high-definition pictures (42 percent), Internet connectivity (25 percent), and even 3D technology (25 percent).

Of course, the price point was also primary concern with at least 55 percent citing this as the biggest reason in the decision making process.

Thus, perhaps if the price isn't right with consumers, that would explain why they would just opt for gadgets they already have and/or deem more necessary to own (such as a smartphone or laptop) for watching movies and TV shows.

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