Xigga

Before I went to Wal-Mart I had never even heard of that name. I stepped foot inside Wal-Mart after 3 years, because it opened up close to my house and they obviously had lower prices for some things. So I walked into the electronics section, as I always do when I go to any store. I was like “Vizio, what the hell is that?” I thought it was some cheap brand that will die out in a couple months.

I was wrong! They would’ve died if it wasn’t for Wal-Mart. When Vizio picked Wal-Mart to be their retailer, they had a reason. Wal-Mart has the biggest market. They get tens of millions of customers each day. Vizio has been gaining speed fast. They are catching up to Samsung and Sony for the biggest LCD TV manufacturer. But Vizio still has some more to go with quality. They are priced lower because they have slighly lower quality. They’re not horrible though. If you want to see horrible take a look at any American brand TV (RCA, Polaroid, etc). Vizio is American, but it’s good. It just needs to keep getting better.

Vizio has become a threat to other retailers. BestBuy is selling their private label Insignia HDTVs in direct competition to Vizio. Goto BestBuy.com and search for Vizio. You will get a nice little notice that says “we do not carry Vizios, but we do carry Insignias”. I saw several Vizio’s at Costco the other day and they looked as good as the Sonys (Samsung still the best!).

If you’re looking for a cheap HDTV, so you don’t have to worry about buying a new one (because it was cheap), go with Vizio. It is good for a secondary HDTV somewhere in the house. If someone breaks it, no biggie. I’d like to know what Vizio has planned for the future. My guess is that they are working on a QuadHD panel, or one of the bigger players will give Vizio the contract to manufacture the panel for them.  I’m thinking Sony, they always contract stuff out to the little guys.