01/26/98 FLAT PANELS FOR THE REST OF US?

FLAT PANELS FOR THE REST OF US?

FOR YEARS, FLAT-PANEL displays have been easier on the eye than traditional PC monitors because there's no flicker and the image is sharper. But with prices starting around $3,000 for 14-inch desktop monitors, they've been tough on consumers' wallets. That's why most flat-panel displays wind up in some financial and medical offices where clunky cathode ray tube displays just wouldn't fit in. Now, a price war of sorts is starting that could turn the devices into a standard desktop PC accessory.
On Jan. 12, Akia Corp. USA, an Austin (Tex.) PC mail-order company started last year by former Dell Computer Corp. executives, slashed the price on its 14.5-inch display to just $1,500 from $2,000. That follows a November price cut by NEC Technologies Inc. on its 14.1-in. MultiSync flat-panel display to $1,998 from $2,699. That's still about three times the price of a standard 17-in. PC monitor, which sells for around $600. But with personal-computer makers such as Compaq Computer, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, and IBM offering flat-panel models in their PC monitor lines this year, analysts expect prices to fall further.
By Gary McWilliams
EDITED BY IRA SAGER