Black Friday is a crucial day for retailers when annual profits usually cross from the red into the black. Black Friday 2006 was marked by extraordinary promotions that pushed Q4 TV shipments to record highs and average selling prices to record lows, particularly for flat panel LCD and PDP models.

Wal-Mart has already started promoting a 50" HD plasma for less than $1,000, compared to an average price of around $1700 in mid October. It's just a matter of time before traditional consumer electronics retailers like Circuit City and Best Buy react. Even with the early price cutting, Wal Mart expects the same store sales of its U.S. operations for the November four-week reporting period to be flat. October net sales were up 5% over 2006.

The week of Black Friday 2006 alone accounted for 19.4% of all TV sell-through units and 17.1% of revenues during Q4'06. The focus last Black Friday was on 42" HD PDP with Best Buy advertising the Panasonic TH42PX75U for $999, which ended up as the bestselling TV on a revenue basis by a 2:1 margin over any other SKU.

According to Paul Gagnon, Director of North America TV Market Research, "Black Friday has always been a crucial event for retailers, but because of the surge in demand for flat panel TVs, it has become an important indicator for selling trends for the rest of the holiday season."

Tier 2 brands like Vizio and Syntax-Brillian have had a considerable impact on the TV market during the last year, capturing share in mass merchant and warehouse club channels. But these brands are also now moving into traditional CE distribution.

The Vizio P50 HDM impressed me with its attractive design and good image quality when using 720p and PC video sources. Its lack of a digital tuner and its scaling issues with 1080i content make it best suited for use with a set-top box that provides content scaled to the display's preferred 720p resolution. But perhaps what's most important is that Vizio has delivered a good 50-inch plasma monitor that sets the bar for the features and performance you should expect from future low-priced challengers.

Buy Vizio 50" Plasma Hdtv -P50