Dell's 50-inch Plasma HDTV Wins in Four-City, Head-to-Head Competition

[john910aol]

FYI
Consumers Choose Dell's 50-inch Plasma HDTV in Four-City, Head-to-Head Competition with Panasonic
http://www.virtualpressoffice.com/rod/PressContent/detail.jsp?contentId=1142015444421&uId=1136428937556

[tony17]

maybe post the actual text...the link asks for a login

[john910aol]

here is article

Mar 21, 2006 11:00

Consumers Choose Dell's 50-inch Plasma HDTV in Four-City, Head-to-Head Competition with Panasonic
ROUND ROCK, Texas --(Business Wire)-- March 21, 2006 When considering picture quality and price(a), consumers chose Dell's (NASDAQ:DELL) W5001C plasma HDTV over Panasonic's TH50PX500U model in a four-city, head-to-head viewing competition.

The consumer preference study of 50-inch plasma HDTVs was conducted from November 2005 through February 2006 in Baltimore, Chicago, New York and San Francisco. Following viewings of each TV, 308 consumers were asked their preference if the Panasonic and Dell TVs were priced $500 and $100 apart. The Dell won at only a $100 discount to the Panasonic.

Guideline Research, on behalf of Dell, conducted the Dell HDTV Challenge at shopping malls in the four cities. It pitted the competing plasmas against each other in viewings of indoor and outdoor, bright and dimly lit, and high and lower contrast scenes from a high-definition movie. The full study can be viewed at http://www.dell.com/HDTVchallenge.

The test was conducted "double blind," meaning those who administered the survey and those surveyed were neither aware of its purpose or sponsorship, nor of the brand names being viewed before respondents made their choice. Respondents were chosen if they had purchased a high-end television in the past year, or were considering purchasing one in the coming year.

"This is the second year in a row that Dell TVs have come out on top in the 'HDTV Challenge'. The results reaffirm that customers value the outstanding picture quality of Dell televisions as much as the price," said Gerry Smith, vice president of displays and imaging for Dell.

Dell TVs are available in 50- and 42-inch plasma and 37-, 32-, 26- and 23-inch LCD HDTV models. More information can be found at http://www.dell.com/tvs.

About Dell

Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL) listens to customers and delivers innovative technology and services they trust and value. Uniquely enabled by its direct business model, Dell sells more systems globally than any computer company, placing it No. 28 on the Fortune 500. Company revenue for the last four quarters was $56 billion. For more information, visit http://www.dell.com. To get Dell news direct, visit http://www.dell.com/RSS.

(a) Based on the Panasonic website's online prices in effect 11/15/05 to 3/20/06.

Pricing, specifications, availability, and terms of offers may change without notice. Taxes, fees, shipping, handling and any applicable restocking charges are extra, and vary. Dell cannot be responsible for pricing or other errors, and reserves the right to cancel orders arising from such errors.

Dell is a trademark of Dell Inc.

Dell disclaims any proprietary interest in the marks and names of others.

[moderator deleted detail contact info]

[haveoneolboy]

Guideline Research, on behalf of Dell, conducted the Dell HDTV Challenge at shopping malls in the four cities."

This is all I needed to read.

[mongered]

One thing of note is that the study compares the latest Dell to LAST YEAR'S Panny. The current 50" Panny (TH-50PX60U) actually has a LOWER MSRP of $3,499 than Dell's $3,799. The study seems to indicate that folks would prefer the Dell if they could get it for $100 less than last year's Panny model. Would the same study participants prefer the new (and one one assume improved) Panny at $300 less than the Dell?

[andy sullivan]

I've never owned a Dell but I think it's narrow minded to think that anyone would choose an inferior display to save $100. If the test was a double blind than the only reason not to consider the results on their merit is if you think the testers are lying. Possible but not likely.

[plazman]

[QUOTE=andy sullivan]I've never owned a Dell but I think it's narrow minded to think that anyone would choose an inferior display to save $100. If the test was a double blind than the only reason not to consider the results on their merit is if you think the testers are lying. Possible but not likely.[/QUOTE]
----------------------

I've selected Pepsi over coke during taste tests conducted by Pepsi (although I prefer coke), because voting for Pepsi got you a chance to win a number of high value prices.

Not sure how this test was done, but usually people don't have enough time to make up their mind, it also depends on how the questions are posed etc.

Also, I don't believe Dell makes either the Plasma glass or video processors that go into their TVs. They are rebadged, and I would guess not Pioneer, NEC or Panny, but Akai or more likely Samsung since they have re-badged Samsung laptops in the past. HP for instance, rebadges Panny - glass + electronics.

I may be wrong, but that's my hunch....

[pyedog]

[QUOTE=andy sullivan]... I think it's narrow minded to think that anyone would choose an inferior display to save $100. If the test was a double blind than the only reason not to consider the results on their merit is if you think the testers are lying. Possible but not likely.[/QUOTE]

Or more likely, when the average mall goer looks at two similarly sized uncalibrated plasmas in mall lighting they tend to think picture quality generally looks the same - as a result, they pick the cheaper of the two equivalent (to their minds) displays.

The true mark of something being better is when people are willing to pay extra for it, not when they are willing to buy it for less.

This is just marketing fluff ...

[mongered]

[308 consumers were asked their preference if the Panasonic and Dell TVs were priced $500 and $100 apart. The Dell won at only a $100 discount to the Panasonic.]

I currently own a Philips. I've owned neither a Dell, nor a Panny, although I have recently ordered a 42" Panny. I was just pointing out specifically what the study says. No more, no less.

I am wondering if they asked which display they preferred, regardless of price. Or which they would prefer if the Panny were at say a $100 discount to the dell. Would the participants still prefer the Dell? Who knows what the answer would be? I can assure sure that if the researchers had asked these, and if the answer was that Dell was preferred, it would be mentioned, nay headlined in the article.

Really I am making a point about marketing strategy, not the Dell.

[westa6969]

Since Dell doesn't build or cut it's own glass - who's panel is being rebadged here by Dell?

ExtremeTech identifies the panel as being Samsung. :)

[almostinsane]

Apparently one that sucks.

http://www.engadget.com/2006/03/15/dell-w5001c-50-inch-plasma-reviewed/

When the best thing a review can muster about a TV is that it has good speakers -- for a TV -- it's probably not one that many people would want to, you know, buy. And even if 20-watt speakers on a plasma really get you juiced up, PC Mag's one-and-half star rating (out of five, and not two, unfortunately for Dell) of the $3,800 W5001C 50-incher should convince you to look elsewhere for your flat-panel needs. The laundry list of problems with the W5001C is so long that we'll get the other highlights out of the way first- 3:2 pulldown engages quickly and the remote is comfortable to hold. But if little things like picture quality matter at all, then the 1366 x 768 Dell falls short on nearly all fronts: sporting greyish blacks, banding in light-to-dark transitions, picture-squeezing with digital inputs, and off-color shadows- even though it actually performs quite well on ANSI and VESA benchmarks. These almost-unforgivable picture flaws along with the complete lack of noise-reduction make this model seem almost beyond hope; even Dell is aware of the problem and is attempting a miraculous fix through either a firmware upgrade or some magical mixture of calibration settings that the pros at PC Mag couldn't figure out. Until you hear otherwise, though, this would seem to be a classic example of "budget-conscious" big screens that aren't a deal at any price.

[plazman]

[QUOTE=mongered][308 consumers were asked their preference if the Panasonic and Dell TVs were priced $500 and $100 apart. The Dell won at only a $100 discount to the Panasonic.]

I currently own a Philips. I've owned neither a Dell, nor a Panny, although I have recently ordered a 42" Panny. I was just pointing out specifically what the study says. No more, no less.

I am wondering if they asked which display they preferred, regardless of price. Or which they would prefer if the Panny were at say a $100 discount to the dell. Would the participants still prefer the Dell? Who knows what the answer would be? I can assure sure that if the researchers had asked these, and if the answer was that Dell was preferred, it would be mentioned, nay headlined in the article.

Really I am making a point about marketing strategy, not the Dell.[/QUOTE]
-----------------

True. Sometimes they even say things like, "If you could have this TV plus 100 bucks in your pocket, would you take it"? Noew, since I am at a mall, and 100 bucks will get me a decent sneaker, I'm not really thnking about the TV, but the 100 bucks instead! It's all been tried before

[billybob_jcv]

There's lies, d@mn lies, then statistics...

[Elemental1]

[QUOTE=westa6969]Since Dell doesn't build or cut it's own glass - who's panel is being rebadged here by Dell?

ExtremeTech identifies the panel as being Samsung. :)[/QUOTE]

Most likely Samsung.
My Dell XPS Gen2 Laptop has a Truelife LG/Phillips LCD (1900x1200) and due to complaints about these, they switched to Samsung.
I actually like the LG, darks look so sweet like on this forum but whites can be a little dirty.