Bye, Bye Rear Projection TV?

Samsung exec sees the end coming

I had a nice chat today with Sangheung Shin, Samsung’s head honcho for TV marketing. The really nice part is that he’s a straight shooter—very frank about what’s going well and what isn’t.

He said he expects rear-projection sets (once Samsung’s darling product) to go away in about five years. Why? Plasma—even in monster screen sizes—will get so cheap that the money savings from RPTV is no longer compelling enough. For TVs, fat is just not where it’s at.

Adding to the roar of buzz for ultra-slim TVs, Samsung kicked out prototypes of a one-inch LCD (that they expect to sell in 2009) and OLED panels that Mr. Shin expects to hit 30 to 40-inch screen sizes within five years.—Sean Captain