LAS VEGAS, Jan. 6 (UPI) -- Key innovations in televisions this year are bumping up against a saturated market, with U.S. consumers hesitant to buy, industry analysts said.
Among the reasons consumers are not buying a 3-D set or jumping into systems that integrate the Internet with television is the rapid sale of flat screen TVs, which seems to have peaked and implies consumers recently purchased a new television and are not ready to buy another, The New York Times reported Thursday.
In addition, "There's a little bit of fatigue" in the market, said James Sanduski, senior vice president for sales at Panasonic.
"Many consumers are saying, 'I just bought a TV. I'm going to wait,'" he said.
As manufacturers gathered in Las Vegas for a major consumer electronics trade show, Paul Gagnon, director of North American TV research at DisplaySearch, said the "laggards," who have not bought a flat screen set "are stubborn."
Further, analysts say the merger of the Internet and television has become confusing, with major players like Google, jumping in in fits and starts. In going for 3-D sets, consumers are wary of extra costs of upgraded CD players and glasses, analysts said.
For manufacturers, the concern is how to keep consumer buying as the prices of flat screen sets go down. In the past three years, prices for LCD TVs have fallen 36.3 percent while the price of plasma TVs has fallen 51.6 percent, the Times said.
