At one time, five years ago, curved TV screens were all the rage. Every TV manufacturer jumped on the bandwagon, fearful of being left out. Today, we know it was a fad. A folly. A technical dead end. Recently, ars technica took us back in time, via Twitter, to their prescient analysis. After a good technical roundup, “The flat-out truth on curved TVs” ars concluded:
The mishmash of arguments for a curved TV isn’t necessarily an indictment of the value of curved TV. This would not be the first time that manufacturers obscured the technical or scientific reasons for a decision because they think it’s too hard to explain to consumers. It may be easier to latch onto words like “immersive” and “theatrical” and hope no one asks the hard questions.
But, it would also not be the first time that manufacturers assigned value to some spec based on the idea that it qualitatively improved a viewing experience in some way, only for consumers to find the end result is underwhelming and, more importantly, not worth paying for.
Check It Out: A CES 2014 Flashback: The Folly of Curved TV Screens
It seems to me that much of the stuff at CES is about like the impractical clothing seen on high fashion show runways.
Not certain Folly is the right term for curved screens. I still would prefer a curved screen over a flat one especially for a really large screen.
Consumers simply didn’t really take to them overall…. but how many millions were sold?
I would love to have the option to purchase a curved screen on my 75″ 8K screen.
I hope that option will be available.
Some ideas just don’t take – but that’s what innovation is all about. BetaMax was better than VHS but it lost the War; the new Dodge Dart was gone in less than 2 years….. So what? Where has Apple been in innovation? They make NO screens so why throw stones? Further Apple was LATE in 4k as per usual and LATE – or rather non-existant in flexible screens – which of course they are working on…..meanwhile VW poached Hitzinger from Apple today – the guy in charge of self driving tech for Apple’s ridiculous Titan BS… so there goes that.. He will head up VW’s self driving tech but more so the complete overhaul of the experience of being in a driver-less car. Elon showed the retro Buck Rodgers looking BFR now called the Starship today in Texas…. but what about curved screens. Really? zzzzzz 😴