Today I spent an hour at Smart Buy hunting for a flat screen TV for our office’s meeting room. I was looking at screens 40-50 inch in size. My hunt started a few days ago at Carrefour’s electronics department.
Complaining about the prices of electronic in Jordan is one of my favorite pastimes. I will do that in a minute.
But first a news flash: Blu-ray players have hit the shelves of Smart Buy today. This is the first time I see Blu-ray players in Jordan.
Here is the Samsung BD-P1400 player..
And the Sharp Aquos BD-HP20SA player..
The price: 489 JD for the Sharp player and almost the same for the Samsung one..
Now, SmartBuy is the self proclaimed king of electronic stores in Jordan, but, they still manage to misspell the label:
Welcome the PLUE RAY technology everyone!
And 489 JDs are almost 700 US$. Gues how much this player costs in the US: 300-400 US$. We’re being asked to pay double..
I also found out that we can now buy HD compatible satellite receivers. The only one Smart Buy had was from Humax and retailed at 365 JDs.
My visit to Smart Buy this evening was fascinating. I counted no less than 5 Ammani couples showing keen interest in flat screen TVs. Many models on display where out of stock. The market seems to have taken off since the last time I checked. The prices have come down. But when I compare prices to the US or the UK I still feel totally ripped off as a Jordanian consumer. The cheapest Sony Bravia 40” I could find at Smart Buy today was for JD 1300. A similar model in the US would be in the US$ 950 range (that’s less than JD 700). Again: double the price.
As usual, I overheard the sales people’s CLUELESS answers to most of the customer’s questions. People coming into these stores are totally lost. What is Full HD? What is HDMI? What’s the difference between plasma and LCD? The answers are often wrong or incomplete. That’s why I am putting together a very simple intro/guide for the mysterious world of HDTV shortly and posting it on 360east.
Beside the clueless answers I noticed a lot of chaos in the way the TVs where being promoted. Both Carrefour and Smart Buy have no problem playing non-HD content on the nice HD screens. Any satellite station would do (maybe they want to be honest about the fact that you will not be able to receive HD broadcasts in the Middle East yet). Then they have a huge mixup regarding the HD promotional videos that they do display. You see an LG video playing on a Sharp TV and a video from the Chinese (pretending to be German) brand G-Hanz playing on Sony, Samsung and Philips TVs..
The message: we don’t give a crap. It actually depresses me when Jordanian “upscale” retail is done in such a sloppy manner.
Still, the people seem to be buying the glitzy gadgets. Not far away from the well-to-do west-Ammani couples examining large LCD TV’s was a group of Egyptian construction workers discussing the purchase of a conventional Satellite receiver. Everyone wants some visual entertainment 
Comments
16 responses to “Blu-ray players come to Jordan (overpriced) and flat-screen TV’s take off (also overpriced)”
Why would anyone buy the player when you can get the PS3 for such a close price?
If there is such a wide gap in prices why don’t Jordanians purchase electronics thru the web?
will wait for your review on HDTV, I hope you won’t charge me $1500 for reading it
Oh man, I’m dreading the move back to Jordan and having to probably give up my Sony TV for these exact reasons. I’m seriously thinking of buying an NTSC-to-PAL converter and shipping my TV with me. It’s a 50” Sony SXRD and IMO it is the best rear projection HD TV you can buy for its price. Unfortunately, Sony stopped making rear projection TVs (you can only get SXRD projectors now).
About blu-ray players. The cheapest PS3 is significantly cheaper than these players and it will still play blu-rays AND also upscale your DVDs to 1080p and do a real good job at it.
You might want to get a projector for work instead of the TV, but you might not really need a top of the line full HD projector if you’re just going to be using it for presentations (unless you are actually producing or reviewing HD content, are you?
). At my work, we pretty much have only projectors in the conference room. This way we can share the same wall between a whiteboard and the projector’s screen!
By the way, I don’t think the demo HD videos are a big deal. I’ve seen the same thing in the US. I actually think it’s better because that way you can compare the same material on different brand TVs. Who cares if the disc was a Samsung disc on a Sony TV?
Thanks for the heads up.
yeah technology is quick and a tad confusing and thats coming from a techy like myself, but I havn’t looked into the tv thing as tv isnt something I want to spend my cash on… it usually goes on apple products!
cant wait for your posting..
Plue Ray
looooooooooool
thx for the share
nice topic.. i got my TV last month its TCL
don’t ask what is it.. will i checked most of TV showrooms and companies in Amman and there is a very big different in every product and most of people do not know what all these names means… every company tell u another story and every one want to sell his product even no one knew what is it… and if you asked them a serious question (Like dead pixel) they will answer you another thing.. so i found in the end that every big brand have another brand side by side it have same technology but different name AND cheap…so most of hight price go to brand name, like Sony, sharp, LG… so i decide to invest in big size and cheap TV… so i found an offer at Thomson shop… when i went there i found what i want but under the name TCL by the way most of these TV’s is made in china what ever was the brand… china is where most of them is produced so they also have cheap good TV…
I found the TV come with 2 USB connection so can play any video from my flash disk or even hard disk, even i can have any operating system from any hard disk run on this TV.. i paid JD900 for Tcl 40” LCD TV, it have 2 USB connection, it play HD and have every thing as in any sony or LG or sharp…
look no one will notice the small changes in specification… but after i got it i was very disappoint
not from the TV it self but you will not find a good quality station on satellite.. there is few you can enjoy like MBC 2 and action but not all.. the broadcast it self still weak, some channels come with 5audio sound some with stereo sound but most is low quality sound and pictures…
the Tcl 40” LCD TV is very good for games, i am using it for Wii and its perfect…
small advices
1- don’t get the big LCD unless you have big room…
this is small review of own experience in LCD TV…
PS3 is surely the first Blue Ray Disc player in sales here in Europe. It’s 360 € now, about 560 $. The Samsung and other BD players are still around 350-400 €. The problem now is that the only “cheap” market in electronics is USA (i don’t know about Japan and Far East), in Europe the prices are not droping down while Euro is going up, this is simply strange! I have an Xbox360, a videogame price in Europe is about 60 €, in USA 60 $, this is incredible considering that 60$= 38 €! (by the way, is there someone in Amman playing on Xbox360 live? It would be nice to play with some “baladiyyat” online, i’m sick of italians, americans and germans!).
If we talk about LCD prices they are going down fortunately, a 40” Full HD good model, Samsung or Philips, is about 999 €, if you want just an HD ready well at 699 € you will find it.
2 points I want to add here.
First,
TVs, which do have customs, get 60% raise in the price. I think this answers some of the mysteries why electronics are so overpriced.
I tried importing a 22” LCD computer screen from USA to Jordan. Since computers and their peripherals dont have customs, they only added 25% on me
Second,
In Japan electronics are cheap only if they are locally produced. For example, eventhough SONY is Japanese, they produce in China. Locally produced Japanese product are low quality usually. I was surprised, but this is the fact. Nowadays when I want to buy electronics, I go to Akihabara in Tokyo to buy the high quality products. Thats where I bought my HD-TV SONY 32” like a year ago!
Funny how you make fun of them spelling it wrong when you did as well
It’s Blu-Ray not Blu*E*-Ray (In the title no less!)
As for the prices that is what it is! When you consider shipping and handling along with taxes/customs whatever the online prices translate directly from US dollar to JD, meaning $400 becomes 400JD if you order it online yourself.
Hameed.. thanks for pointing out my misspelling. I corrected it. They, on the other hand, still have the “Plue” misspelling on the shelf. Saw it again today.
Whats the point of buying blu-ray player when most people cant afford buying the blu-ray disc which is not less than 30JDs!
And still, Sony is not allowing Hollywood publishers and producers to use blu-ray unless sony is on the deal??
as people said here, PS3 is the best deal for games movies and internet also!
Hi,
Could one of you fine bloggers give me an idea how much a 42 Inch LCD/Plasma would cost in Amman? We are moving from the Philippines and here an HD ready 42 Panasonic PV8 is about USD$1,100.
We can import it duty-free with our house goods. But if we can buy for a similar price, may as well buy it there and reduce the risk of damage during shipping.
Thanks,
K
Hi Elnica,
Not sure how much that same model will cost here in Amman, but definitely more than that. A 32 inch Samsung, with similar specs would cost you around $900. As far as I have seen, you cannot get a good / brand name 42 ” LCD / Plasma for less than $1,400. If you’re comming in a few months – things may change / prices may be lower in Amman.
Would also check and see if you can get it packed very well / in its own crate and if your shipper will provide any insurance – and how much that would cost though before making the decision.
everything sucks here in Jordan u always don’t find what u want
@abed_italy
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@ Basel,
Added you to my XBL if you do not mind
My Gamertag is aqatato
Anyone can add me.