The late ’00s and early ’10s were a wonderful time if you were in the TV business. Flat TVs were flying off shelves. The government was literally paying people to switch to digital broadcasting. Prices were dropping and screens were getting big. You could get an image better than a movie theater, for about $1,000. But, it wasn’t going to last forever. Most folks weren’t in a position to buy a new TV every year, what with the recession and all. Sooner or later it was all going to come crashing down. But you can’t blame the TV makers for trying to extend things a little.
Maybe you can be too rich or too thin.
Back in 2014, TV makers didn’t know what to do. They were still trying to recapture the glorious positions they held in the mid-2000s when everyone and their brother wanted a new flat panel. They tried 3D, and that didn’t work. By 2014 they wanted to try curved TVs, and it was pretty obvious that wasn’t going anywhere either.
The weirdest trend at the 2014 Consumer Electronics Show, though, was manufacturers showing televisions that were much, much thicker than the ones they had previously shown.
Sony actually promoted this as a good thing, saying their wedge-shaped TVs were just plain better. They called the thicker TV “innovative.” Um, ok. If you say so.
Of course that’s ridiculous and everyone saw through it at once. As TVs got less expensive, the low-end ones stayed thick and by 2015, TVs were thin again. It’s really obvious now that TV makers just couldn’t figure out how to make big TVs that were really thin… yet. But it didn’t take them much time, once their chunky-bottomed TVs flopped in the market.
Another 2014 trend
2014 was also the year that we started to see mass-market 4K TVs. They were still priced above $1,500, but they were well below the $20,000 that they were at just a few years earlier. It’s funny to think, though, that there still isn’t really a lot of 4K content eight years later.
2014 really marked a turning point for the way we thought about TV. It was still very early in the streaming era. Most folks really had just started using their phones for internet a few years earlier. The living room TV was the way most of us got our entertainment. We still spend a fair amount of time in the living room, but we also spend even more time on our phones. As CES progressed, it became less about the big screen and more about the little ones. If you’re interested in more coverage from the 2014 Consumer Electronics Show, back when big screens we king, check out all our coverage from back then. If not, why not take a look at the great stuff you’ll find at Solid Signal? Shop our web site for the best tech from today, and the best accessories for equipment from 2014 and even before. If you have questions or need help, call us at 888-233-7563 or fill out the form below if it’s after hours.
