HDTV Sales Starting to Slump?

Today's Wall Street Journal has raised some questions about how well certain consumer electronics products will sell in today's flagging economy. Specifically, how well high-definition televisions will continue to sell is in question, based on a couple of factoids from the article:

"MasterCard's SpendingPulse service -- which is based on the credit card giant's record of purchases -- that showed that spending in the electronics category fell by 14% year-over-year in September, following modest declines of 3% and 6% in the previous months. Moreover, retailer Best Buy Co. last week disclosed in regulatory filings that same-store sales had declined 2%, after forecasting growth of above 4% in mid-September."

Also, Philips announced wider losses from its television-making operations in the third quarter.

It's tough to get a handle on what's really going on with consumer electronics sales. Some reports have indicated that the first nine months of this year saw very good sales of flat-panel televisions. At the same time, our research (as pictured above) has shown general declines in purchase intentions for certain CE products (through July).