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Comment by dylan604 | Hacker News Reader

How do you think manufactures can afford to sell these large screens at such cheap prices. They continue to make money off of you long after the initial sale. I'm surprised they just don't give them away (except it would probably raise too many questions).

Your digital cable boxes have been doing this for even longer.

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>How do you think manufactures can afford to sell these large screens at such cheap prices.

TV prices have been falling for decades[1], long before manufacturers could truly benefit from the data provided by smart TVs. So other factors are probably much more important - such as cheaper materials, automated production, economies of scale etc.

Also, ad revenue wouldn't explain why "stupid" computer monitor prices have also fallen greatly during the same time period.

[1] https://u.osu.edu/zagorsky.1/2014/05/18/why-are-television-s...

They aren't getting much back from selling the data. Maybe $20 off.

And that is based on what data? BigCorps tend to not continue doing something if it's not going to bring them much return.

Somewhat tangential, but Facebook’s average revenue per user was less than $9 in 2019. I can’t imagine TV manufacturers can eek out nearly that much revenue from the data they collect. Especially considering that almost everyone is streaming or using cable and all of that data is going to Hulu/Netflix/Cable providers and then passed on to advertisers anyway.

FB has 1.5B+ daily users. $9 * 1.5B = A LOT OF CASH. Is that per month, per year? Plus Insta, plus WhatsApp

TV Manufactures may not sell 1B units (maybe they do), but it's still a large enough number that it will not be unnoticed in a balance sheet

In the case of Samsung and smart TVs, and to fully support the argument you are supporting, it is not sufficient that Samsung makes a lot of money. They need to make a lot more per user selling data than they would adding $20 to the price of that TV.

But that $20 price difference would probably mean that less people buy Samsung, so the maths isn't going to be that straightforward.

> How do you think manufactures can afford to sell these large screens at such cheap prices.

Screens are actually that cheap. Take a look at the monitor size/resolution price curve (for non-gaming monitors) and you'll see TVs fit perfectly on it.

Here's a random 55 inch LG panel available on Alibaba. $145 each for a minimum order of 15. That was just the first I found - I'm sure you can get cheaper (especially in bulk!)

Things like high refresh rate, GSync etc add to the cost of the monitor.

https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/LG-full-color-FHD-mod...

Yup.

I bought a 75” 4K TV with HDR for $750 recently. I paid that much for my first 15” LCD computer monitor.

If I connect it to the internet I know it’s spying on me.

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