Typically, prices for technology will go down as time goes on. We've seen this again and again with flatpanels, as you can now snag a very nice 17" flat panel display for well under $200 quite often. Recently, though, there's been a fairly significant price increase on the cost of the LCD itself. The panels rose more than 10% in price, with the average cost of a 17" now being $125. $12 may not be a huge difference to us, but often even a few dollars can mean the difference between someone buying a CRT vs an LCD, and can cause large changes in the amount of LCDs a retailer may purchase. They may continue to rise in price, as the numbers indicate:
In addition, since demand for 17-inch LCD monitors remains strong, demand for 17-inch panels will remain ahead of supply in the short run, the sources indicated. For the second half of September, prices for the segment stand a good chance of slightly increasing by US$2-3 with the upward trend expected to remain through the beginning of November, sources said.
19" panels saw increases as well, though much more marginal. Back-to-school season and the upcoming holidays often mean greater demand for new monitors, which puts even more pressure on the manufacturers to produce them.