14 DAY TRIAL // Samsung has first announced a prototype of its 70-inch LCD HDTV last August, but up until now, no one has seen it. However, it seems that they are in fact willing to mass produce the huge flat panel but they've been having some problems with the availability factor. As the end of 2006 seems to be a good period for them (at least in what sales are concerned), they have decided to announce the release date of the monster, saying that we'll see the full 1080p capable flat panel with the 8ms response time and 2000:1 contrast ratio in "February or March" of next year.
As I've said, that's a huge statement even for someone like Samsung. Few producers have ever entered the large panel market segment because it poses some pretty big problems, most of them related to the manufacturing process. We don't know who will be behind the actual production of the panels but the list is not long. Since Au Optronics has only plans to build 65" LCDs, I guess that CMO will be the maker of this huge beast.
The company also stated it would be able to produce and release into the market up to a million of these monsters in a year, so - according to them - you won't have to wait in line for this LCD. Bold words, but I'd prefer to wait some time and see how the actual production is going before projecting such a large figure. 1 million LCDs of this size per year seems a lot. And even if they manage to produce them, I doubt the demand will be that high. Speaking of "high", Samsung has not released any information regarding the price, but it won't come cheap. On the other hand, it'll be the largest mass-produced LCD TV on the market, at least for a while.