November 22, 2005 – Spurred by a rush of new flat-panel televisions hitting the market and a drop in prices, combined shipments of plasma and LCD models surpassed those of conventional picture tube TVs for the first time in the January-October period, according to figures released Monday by a trade group, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported today.

Domestic LCD TV shipments rose 50% on year in October, and shipments for the January-October period surged 61.8% to 3.1 million units, according to the Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association. Plasma TVs were up 70% in October and climbed 26.5% to 310,000 units in the January-October period.

Meanwhile, tube TV shipments dropped 36.5% in October and were down 27.5% to 3.31 million units in the January-October period. Flat-panel TVs are also getting a boost as people replace their sets because of the spread of terrestrial digital television broadcasts. Models capable of receiving terrestrial digital broadcasts reached 45.1% of all TVs shipped in October, hitting the 40s for the first time.

For the full year, LCD TVs alone are expected to surpass tube TVs in terms of units shipped.