Buy now or pay more later
Most of the biggest manufacturers of TFT-LCD screens used in flat panel displays are to hike their prices in early January.
That confirms predictions made by display analyst Meko earlier this month, when senior analyst Bob Raikes said prices were beginning to stabilise after the big falls we saw earlier in the year.
The Economic News of Taiwan reports today that two large TFT-LCD manufacturers, Hannstar and Chunghwa Picture Tubes, will up the price of their 15-inch panels by around $10 a unit in January - meaning prices will settle at around $240.
And Samsung, a major Korean maker of the panels, will also up its prices perhaps to as much as $250 a unit in January, the report adds.
Those price hikes will take a little while to percolate through to the marketplace but you can take it as more or less read that we"ll see the units rise to consumers ahead of the clearing of current stock from the warehouses.