Originally Posted by jjne:
“Show me where I said that 4K panels weren't in mass production.”
err.... right here. This is where you said it
Originally Posted by jjne:
“<SNIP>will not be releasing mass-manufactured 4K TVs any time soon. No-one will<SNIP>”
Originally Posted by jjne:
“ Only an idiot would invest £4000 in a Chinese television -- that alone will see them off as a serious player.”
Except a 4K 55" TV from China won't be £4000 because the Japs and Koreans are already there. So the Chinese set will be half or 2/3rds the going rate. And people will buy them...because they're greedy for new technology or a perceived bargain ....just like they buy Baird / Technika / Polaroid / Goodmans / Techwood / Alba / Celcus / Blaupunkt / Nurvo / DGM / Furrion / Videocon / Haier / Casio / Logik / Digihome / Evotel andGod knows how many other faceless vague brands
Originally Posted by jjne:
“And no-one other than enthusiasts will be buying these sets until they come down in price.”
I don't believe you're right there either. I think enthusiasts will wait for 2nd and 3rd Gen sets to come out.
My bet is that most 1st Gen sets will go to the same homes that had 1st gen iPad and designer kitchens and wet rooms and a couple of £50K motors on the drive. These are the very antithesis of "enthusiast". There are early adopters.
Originally Posted by jjne:
“4K has years in it as a premium product before it's available on supermarket cheapies -- especially given there was a major market for HD sets; where is the market for 4K currently, with no software to run on it?”
That's kind of a black & white view of what one might describe as premium, isn't it? 1080p is in supermarkets, but it's also on the latest VT and ZT range from Panasonic. Are you saying it's not valid on one market or the other?
All technology spreads given time. But that doesn't mean that the performance is equal at all levels in the market.
As for software, sure. We had 720/768 TVs and projectors way before we had anything better than 576p to run on them. That didn't hamper sales though. Euro1080 began broadcasting HD way before 1080p TVs were in widely available. Hell, even DVD launched with just a handful of titles rather than a library of hundreds of films. It was the same for Blu-ray. Historically there's always been a a gap between display technology and the software (and method of delivery) to show it off. 4K software will follow.