Over the past few years it has been encouraging to watch LCD panel sizes increase and prices drop to mainstream affordability but having been around CES 2014 the outlook appears positively exciting.
From an industry point of view it is not just the improvements that users can see but also the advances in the technology that enables them. My expectation is that developments will impact cost and functionality as much as image, if not more.
Over the next few years I foresee that certain issues will become non-issues from a customer perspective. Viewing angle is close to being a non-issue while response time, refresh rate, color, contrast and resolution are all rapidly heading in the same direction. And the innovations or inventions to deliver this will result in cost reductions.
Curved screens look cool so will appeal to some but I expect it is the ability to make a curved screen that is most important because of what it indicates about the advances in production technology. It wouldn’t surprise me if the ability to make a curved screen also enables a flat screen to be manufactured for lower cost or to consume lower power, or for screens to made in ever larger sizes or with narrower bezels.
Same with color, some of the technologies to enable perceived color improvements may also enable other benefits that will lower cost.
In the past it may have seemed counter intuitive to consider that a development that delivers significant feature improvements will also result in reduced costs but now it is pretty much expected.
We can look forward to being able to source displays providing the specifications we need, no matter the shape, size, resolution or other characteristic.
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