Polaroid shook up the world of photography by introducing technology that allowed shutterbugs to process instant positives of photos. Now the company plans to do the same by launching a 50-inch, 4K TV, which is priced below $1,000.
At a time when most big-name TV makers are announcing launches of 4K TV sets that are in the range of $5,000 and goes up to $150,000, Polaroid has by announcing it will be selling a full 4K resolution TV set under a thousand dollars. The company will be showcasing its new $999.99, 50-inch 4K TV at the 2014 International CES, which kicks off next week in Las Vegas.
While Polaroid may seem like an outsider in the world of television manufacturing, the company does have a tenuous, albeit legitimate, claim to television fame. Polaroid was co-founded by Edwin Land, who was one of the pioneering inventors to work on polarizing technology that eventually found its way into the modern television set.
While the sub-thousand dollar 4K TV to be exhibited at CES 2014 does have the Polaroid brand attached to it, the 4K TV has actually been made by a company called Empire Electronics. The company is branding its TV as Polaroid brand, as part of a licensing deal with the latter. While there are a number of other sub-thousand dollar 4K TVs in the market, these are all made by relatively unknown brands, a fact that Empire Electronics seeks to circumvent by licensing the use of Polaroid's longstanding name.
The new Polaroid 4K TV comes with three HDMI ports. However, the new model's performance remains to be seen and only time will tell if the Polaroid-branded set will stand up to television sets from leading companies such as Samsung, Sony and LG. In addition to announcing the 50-inch model, the company has also announced that it will be adding a few more TV models with differing screen sizes in the near future.
