• Wall Street Journal, Tuesday, December 14, 2010 9:33 AM

You know how every time you think about buying a new, more powerful computer, you weigh the benefits of waiting for the prices to keep going down? Well, that's over. The NPD Groups says the average retail price of a PC in November was up 6% from last year's record low.

Big PC makers like HP and Dell are focused on premium machines and are seeing their profit margins expand. The price reversal is also driven by stabilization in laptop prices, which have been pressured by new tablets and low-priced netbooks.

Shoppers' willingness to spend more on PCs stands out against the falling prices of other electronics. Last month, the average selling price of a Blu-ray disc player dropped 21% to $123 from a year earlier, while the average price of a flat-panel TV declined 9% to $550, according to NPD.

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