Shortly after its unveiling at CES 2013, LG’s new 55 inch OLED television was made available for pre-order. In the short six weeks, more than 100 people from South Korea have placed an order for the television, which costs in excess of $10,000.
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Recently LG has been aggressive in its pursuit of World No. 1 TV maker Samsung. In addition to being the first company to launch an OLED television, LG was first in launching a UHD television, on par with Samsung in revealing the world’s first curved OLED television and is currently entangled in litigation over claims their passive 3D technology is preferred over Samsung’s Active 3D.
Televisions using OLED panels are expected to replace commonly used LCD panels as they’re brighter, have a wider viewing angle, are thinner, faster and have extraordinary contrast ratios. For instance, LG’s OLED offering has a response time 1,000 times faster than LCD televisions and an impressive 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio. It weighs less than 10 kilograms and its screen is just 4mm shallow.
In spite of showcasing OLED televisions at the past two CES shows, vendors haven’t been able to release them due to the difficulties associated in mass production.
The first LG OLED television will be available in South Korea on Monday. LG’s head of marketing, Lambro Skropidis, confirmed a 55 inch OLED Television will go on sale in Australia by late March with a tentative price of $11,999.
Samsung has yet to announce when its OLED television will be released.