LG’s 55-inch OLED TV priced just under $8,000 for May launch

LG stole our hearts at CES this year with its amazing 55-inch OLED TV and now it’s about to make a play for our wallets too. The Korean company has announced, as reported by respected business daily Maeil Business, that it’ll host another big launch event for its superb HDTV at the Cannes Film Festival, taking place in France during May this year, before releasing the OLED TVs at an estimated price of 9 million Korean won (including VAT). That’s approximately $8,000, and although direct currency conversions can’t always be relied on to indicate pricing in different markets, it gives us a solid idea of the market LG is addressing.

The price may seem high given the affordability of modern HDTVs, a trend driven in large part by LG itself, but given how long we’ve waited for a full-sized OLED HDTV to hit the market, we’d actually argue it’s less than expected. For LG, being first out of the gate with the technology is a big deal, with the report out of Korea going to say that the company advanced its roadmap from the second half of 2012 to May in order to beat Samsung (and its own Super OLED TV) to market and to also exploit the pre-Olympics TV-buying craze that will grip the world this summer.