Find the Best Deals on Tech and Electronics Gear

Say hello to great buys in 2005. Forget gimmicky year-end inventory clearance sales and fake factory blowouts. Industry analysts say increased production and good old-fashioned cutthroat competition are the real drivers behind plummeting prices on new-fangled PCs and related consumer electronics.

"There's always price aggression when manufacturers fight for market share," explains IDC's Vice President of Client Computing, Roger Kay.

What's different this year is how many tech manufacturers are swimming out of traditional PC-centric pools into the more lucrative--and hotly contested--consumer electronics waters of digital cameras, LCD TV monitors, and MP3 players. Their pain is your gain. Early this year, expect to see some attractive deals with digital cameras, desktop PCs, computer and TV displays, and audio players--as described here and in the following pages.

And to find out where you can shop for great deals, see "Where the Buys Are." Don't forget to check out the latest price alerts for tech products in PC World's Bargain Finder.

Snap Up a Digital Camera

Experts call it Moore's Law: If you wait long enough, the features get better and prices come down. This adage is especially true with digital cameras. Today, you can buy a 3-megapixel digital camera from companies like Concord Camera for under $100--$20 to $40 less than it was in December. And the price of a 5-megapixel digital camera like the Photosmart R707 from HP hovers around $275 (depending on where you shop)--less than what most 4-megapixel cameras were selling for just a few months ago.

Looking ahead, Amazon's director of consumer electronics Glenn Cunningham predicts a significant drop in digital camera prices through the fourth quarter of this year, especially in the $200 to $300 sweet spot for 3-plus megapixel digital cameras. Expect to see 4- and 5-megapixel cameras becoming more mainstream.

On higher-priced cameras, manufacturers may try to protect their prices by offering more "soft" discounts in lieu of hard price drops--including rebates, special promotions, mail-in coupons, secret discount codes, and unadvertised specials--advises Gartner Group analyst Martin Reynolds.

Case in point: HP currently offers a $50 mail-in rebate on digital cameras, photo printers, and camera accessories like memory and docking stations.

Quick tip: To track down similar deals, try running a search on a product's name and the word "rebate" or "coupon" via Google or your favorite search engine. Similarly, you can also try running a search on the names of retailers and the word "promotion" or "discount."

For the latest digital camera reviews, specifications, and prices, check out PC World's product ratings in Top 10 Advanced Digital Cameras and Top 10 Digital Cameras (Point and Shoot).