Things that come and go...just like that

[Mark Hammer]

My son sent me a link to a news item the other day, about a 43" curved LCD monitor from NEC. The news item was dated early June of 2009. The monitor was priced at a "sensible" $7,999.

Given the date of the item, I thought "Hmm, I wonder what they sell for now.", and proceeded to google around for prices. Oddly enough, I could not find a single news item that was dated any more recently than first week iof June 2009.

Did this fully-immersive monitor-of-your-dreams simply vanish? My guess is yes. Notwithstanding the silly price that tends to deter purchase by intermittently-employed gamers living in their parents' basement, the unit seemed to have contravened every principle that permitted LCD to ascend as monitor of choice.

Can you hang it from a wall? No. Does it have a nice shallow profile that lets you slide it back to create more desk-space? No. Does it have amazing resolution? No (native resolution is only 900 pixels high). Is it easy and cheap to ship? No. Can you fit it on the desk in your dorm room? Dream on.

So how the heck did it actually come to be a product? Beats the hell out of me. Maybe a half-dozen execs in Japan have one, but apart from people who would have 2000 sq ft zen-garden offices on the 40th floor, I can't imagine the potential market to have justified its development.

Or am I missing something?

[dai h.]

what it looks like in action:

YouTube - NEC CRV43 NAB 2009 Video1

YouTube - NEC CRV43 Video2

[Steve A.]

My son sent me a link to a news item the other day, about a 43" curved LCD monitor from NEC. The news item was dated early June of 2009. The monitor was priced at a "sensible" $7,999...

Or am I missing something?

Mark:

I can't quite imagine that monitor used for the basic tasks in a business like data processing. It is freakin' wide! I think it is more for watching wide screen movies at work... for those executives powerful enough to command a desk large enough to accommodate that monstrosity. And who tell their underlings "This? It's for executive level presentations and conference calls". But when you walk by his office you hear the guns and bombs from the latest action adventure movie...

I think that the economy has a lot to do with this product disappearing- most companies would have a hard time justifying an expense like that to their investors or shareholders. "Conspicuous Consumption"?

BTW the county where I live used to have a policy that they would pay for a computer that the employee wanted to use at home for his job. (I'm not sure if that policy applied to everyone or just the privileged few.)

It turns out the county was paying for 43" monitors for these employees who undoubtedly were using them in lieu of a wide screen televisions. In a few cases soon after receiving this windfall the employee would retire. Well, he did need more time to watch all of those TV shows and DVDs on his 43" monitor!

I believe the reasoning behind that policy is that it was not uncommon for an employer to pay for classes which improved the skills needed for an employee's job. Many people are taking classes on the internet along with doing work that they take home on their computer so the employer should pay for the computer- right? Not really a bad policy, but there evidently was no oversight. I think that if your supervisor approved your request for a computer to work and study at home they could pay for a basic business level notebook computer (how much are they- $600?). Or maybe have the employee pay half since I am sure that everyone would use their computer for personal business, too.

Only not now with the state of California on the verge of bankruptcy with Schwartzenegger putting his dibs on money which has always gone to the cities and counties. The cuts in services are a real heartbreaker for a lot of people- teachers losing their job and disabled people losing the in-home care that had kept them out of convalescent hospitals. All of that because a certain political party who shall remain nameless (cough.. Damned Republicans... cough!) refuses to approve any new taxes. Hey- if your church was having trouble meeting its bills, the stewardship committee would ask all members to contribute more if they can. Which makes a lot more sense to me than the argument that if you personally were having problems paying your bills you would stop borrowing on credit cards, etc., until your financial house was in order.

But I digest...

Steve Ahola

[trevorus]

I can see phantom lines at the intersection of what looks like 4 individual LCDs. That doesn't look like one continuous LCD, as I am sure the control matrix for that would be insane.