Pricewatch - Over the last several months, 28" and 30" LCD monitors have drastically reduced in price while 22" and 24" models have remained nearly unchanged. In 2007, monitor prices were falling across the board. Last year's holiday shopping season was a great time to buy a new monitor, but since then the only major price changes have been happening in the higher-end product line. If you have been looking for a desktop LCD with a size of at least 28", this may be the time to start looking for one.

According to data we compiled from product histories on Pricegrabber.com, prices for 22" monitors at the beginning of 2007 were around $300 - $350, while 24" monitors would run for $500 - $550.

By the end of the year, these prices came down dramatically. The average retail price for Acer's AL2216Wbd went from around $312 on January 1 to $224 on December 31. HP's W2207 declined from about $340 to $252. In both cases, the price drop in average retail pricing was nearly 30%.

Acer's 24" AL3416WBsd launched in June for around $540 and by the end of the year, retailers had already cut it down to $375.

On the high-end monitor side, price cuts were just as significant. The HG281DPB 28" monitor from HannsG, which was released in September, went from around $615 to $480 in just a few months. The price of Viewsonic's VX2835wm, on the other hand, did not change too drastically during 2007 but has started to really come down this year.

The same can be said of 30" monitors. There was not a massive slash on prices last year, but rather a constantly declining trend that is continuing as we make our way through 2008.

22" and 24" monitors, on the other hand, have remained steady in price since late last year. They clearly have hit a point of high demand and is attracting new buyers. For now, the price level has hit a plateau.

One way we can identify this as an industry trend instead of individual product maturities is that the Dell E248WFP just launched in December at around $400 and it is around $380 today. Other sub-25" monitors that launched in the earlier part of 2007 came down in price much more substantially almost immediately.

When looking at the 28" and 30" monitors, though, there is no sign of a price plateau, which signals the idea that retailers will continue to cut prices on these models to fill the gap in the price levels set by the lower-end monitors.

The 22" and 24" monitor market was the mid-to-high-end segment 12 to 16 months ago, and now it is becoming more of a low-to-mid-end market. 22" monitors are now priced at where 19" monitors used to be just one year ago, and the natural progression would be for increased sizes to follow a similar proportional drop in price.

22" monitor prices

24" monitor prices

28" monitor prices

30" monitor prices

The bottom line is that if you're looking to buy a new monitor and are eyeing anything under 25", now is a good time to buy, but if you want to invest on something a little bigger and are price sensitive, you might want to hold off for a little bit because it looks like prices will continue to fall for at least a good chunk of the year.

Source : Tom's Hardware US