If nothing else, you have to give Samsung credit for the gutsy PR move it pulled off yesterday in lower Manhattan. The Internet has been abuzz since the company decided to preview its $40,000 85-inch Ultra HDTV to members of the press who were probably just happy to be inside where it was warm and they could gawk at swimsuit model, Kate Upton. $40,000 is an incredibly huge sum of money to plunk down on a TV, especially when one could build a complete, high-performance home theater system for that amount. Perhaps we’ve become more frugal after the past four years of recession, or maybe we just have our priorities ordered a little differently. Regardless, for all the uproar surrounding the S9′s pricing, it is not the most expensive TV ever marketed; not by a long shot.
At first glance, the pricing on the Samsung S9 Ultra HDTV understandably seems more than just a little steep. Even for a first-generation panel that admittedly would be right at home at the Museum of Modern Art due to its sheer sense of modernism and style. Unfortunately, Samsung’s new toy is getting a lot of attention right now because of its price and, sadly, not because it looks absolutely amazing with native 4K content. In many ways, the S9 launch and post-event hysteria that would have made CNBC’s Rick Santelli proud is burying more important stories like Samsung’s new line-up of plasma HDTVs, which not only looked amazing, but very well may be the final nails in Panasonic’s coffin...
