By Cho Jin-seo
Staff Reporter
Samsung Electronics Tuesday unveiled its 70-inch LCD TV, the largest of its kind available for sale to the public .
The company also demonstrated three new TV technologies that can improve the flat-screen TVs' picture quality to near-perfection when properly implemented.
Thursday's demonstration showed that the Samsung monster looks clearer than plasma and projection TVs of similar size. The 70-inch TV, however, carries a cumbersome price tag of 59 million won ($63,500) and Samsung has put only 100 units on sale at major department stores in Seoul before shipping the product overseas.
``We have to see how fast the first batch will be sold on the domestic market. Then we will decide whether to expand the supply or to make it a luxury good with a limited supply,'' said Kevin Lee, Samsung's vice president of TV Offering Planning Group.
The new TV has some 20,000 small light-emitting diodes (LEDs) as its light source on the back of the LCD color filters, instead of the usual bulky fluorescent light bulb used by conventional LCD sets. LEDs are easier to control than fluorescent lights but are much more expensive, Lee said.
``We hope that the LED price becomes more affordable in two or three years so that we can lower the price of our TVs,'' he said.
The previously largest LCD TV available on the market was a 65-inch model made by Japan's Sharp, which is being sold at around $30,000 in the United States. For plasma TVs, Panasonic is selling 103-inch sets on special orders at an estimated price of $70,000.