Industry observers are predicting that global TV sales are poised to grow 6% during 2004, or lower than forecast, reflecting lower-than-expected demand for LCDs. Global TV shipments will rise to 168M units this year, compared with 173M units that were projected in a forecast three months ago. At the same time, the forecast for this year's LCD TV shipments were cut 1% to 8.6M units. For glass-tube TVs, shipments are predicted to shrink 0.8% this year, in a complete reversal of an earlier predicted 3.5% rise. The revised forecasts suggest makers of LCD TVs, which are more expensive than comparable plasma or glass-tube sets, will have to cut prices for demand to meet earlier shipment targets. Shares of the top seven LCD-related shares have fallen 12% recently after analysts such as Deutsche Bank said demand is poised to slow in the second half of the year.
