TV Bargains Come Early This Year

Retailers and manufacturers are slashing flat-screen television prices more aggressively than usual this holiday season in hopes of avoiding a pileup of inventory. Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Best Buy Co. and Amazon.com Inc. are touting deals ahead of Black Friday to clear out older and cheaper sets before an anticipated flood of deeper price cuts in coming weeks.

The frenzy is being fueled by such top makers as Sony Corp. and Samsung Electronics Co., which are reducing suggested retail prices and sweetening their promotions with such extras as free Blu-ray movie players and 3-D glasses after initially overestimating the American consumer's appetite for pricey features.

Cutthroat television discounting has been a holiday rite in recent years as major retailers wrestle for a larger share of a big-ticket sales category. But analysts say this season could be different because more than half of all households in the country have at least one flat-screen TV, and newer gadgets such as Apple Inc.'s iPad tablet computer are enticing consumers.

For the complete article, please click here.