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>> “I heard the same basic complaints about flat-panel TVs just before the transition” <<
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I didn’t!
I used flat screen units in my field work for 10 years before they began producing TVs. I bet you used them too.
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Oh, sure, they were available ... but at “a flat-panel TV in every home” scales? wasn’t gonna happen at several thousand dollars each vs “superior” CRTs for cheap. Why sell a 42” panel at home TV prices when you could cut 4 computer monitors out of the same glass and sell ‘em at $2000 a pop?