The price of LCD televisions is collapsing! Smart Money and the Wall Street Journal both report that prices are dropping every day. Ads in papers show, for example, an LCD that was $2,000 about six months ago that is $999 today. The smaller LCDs (usually 20 inches in size) have dropped to as cheap as $279. So, what’s happening? As usual with electronics, everyone sees a goldmine and builds factories to build these products. So, the market is now flooded with LCD televisions and the prices are dropping. SmartMoney also learned that some manufacturers are selling the exact same television with different brand names and different prices. The no-name brands cost a good deal less, but they are the same product. A 23-inch LCD, for example, costs $2,100 with one label and $700 with another. The performance of these computers will be exactly the same, but companies can get away with it. So, if you like the picture, buy the television. It won’t matter if it’s the cheapest because most of them are the same anyway. Clark predicts that by Thanksgiving, the big plasma televisions will break the $1,000 mark. That’s half of what they are today. So, wait a while and the savings will be even greater. As for programming, Clark thinks there will be enough programming in HDTV to make it worth it. DirectTV, in particular, has put a big emphasis on satellites to provide HDTV as soon as possible.