"We feel that this is the next wave of LCDs because of the fact that people are constantly looking at how to save more desktop at the same time as how to increase their productivity."
Product manager Monica Islas. The monitor includes Samsung's MagicBright technology that adjusts brightness for DVD viewing or Web surfing and such. The 729 dollar street price is higher than you'd pay for many other 17 inch LCD monitors, but Islas argues it can substitute for dual displays in many instances. Overall, LCD monitors that take up far less desk space than CRT monitors have become a lot more affordable lately. About the outlook for this year, Samsung says...
"There's still going to be a small erosion. With the 15 inch you're not going to have too much more of a drop because of the fact that it's eroded quite quickly. You get to a point where you have fixed costs and you can't go below that. So 15 inch you won't see too much more of a price erosion. 17 inch has dropped. It'll probably drop a little bit more but you're going to start seeing the larger screen sized come down in price."
Samsung plans to introduce a 20 inch wide screen LCD monitor this spring. Bloomberg Boot Camp, I'm Fred Fishkin.