Over at the Chicago Tribune they have a great article on a fairly new company [ 4 years old] called VIZIO. You may not be familiar with this brand of HDTV since it is mainly sold through discount stores such as Costco, Wal-Mart and the like, but this little darling of the TV technology industry sells inexpensive HDTV’s assembled right here in the USA, at their Irvine, California location. In the Chicago Tribune article it states:

Now his Irvine, Calif.-based company, Vizio Inc., is the No. 1 maker of flat-panel TVs in North America, outselling entrenched Asian competitors in the second quarter. The private company says that it is profitable, that it recorded nearly $700 million in revenue in 2006, and that it is on track for $2 billion in sales this year.

Wang used a recipe similar to the one that catapulted Dell Inc. to the top of the personal computer heap two decades ago. Vizio sells TVs for temptingly low prices by slashing expenses, minimizing inventory, bypassing traditional retailers and aggressively managing suppliers.

“They are the most aggressive and fastest-growing TV maker in the market,” said Van Baker, an analyst for research group Gartner Inc. “They operate on razor-thin margins, and they keep overhead to a minimum. They have very low inventory and they turn their inventory over very fast. They’re what Dell used to be.”

As I had previously written, I recently had Dish Network installed and opted for the HD package. Our old 26″ RCA TV in the master bedroom is not HD ready and I convinced my wife that it would be perfect for guests and that we should upgrade to a new HDTV set. So when I saw the VIZIO 32″ LCD on sale at Wally-World for $547.77 I grabbed one. Yes this is the older 720p version but I’m not planning on watching Blue-Ray nor HD movies on it.

How’s the picture? Superb. On HDTV it seems like you could actually reach inside of the screen and touch the images.

One of the things that is a bit worrisome. Since VIZIO is only 4 years old, no one knows for certain how reliable the sets are. But the price is very consumer friendly.

Anyone else own a VIZIO? Let us know what you think.

Comments welcome.

Complete article here.

[tags]vizio, hdtv, lcd, pricing, low, costco, wal-mart, [/tags]