Quote:
Originally Posted by Beachboy
One thing that continually amazes me is how fast the public has embraced flat panel TV's and gotten rid of their perfectly working CRT models. Back when color TV was first introduced, it took many families 20 years or longer to finally migrate to a color set. In my mind, there was far more justification in going from a B&W picture to a color picture, compared to simply going from a CRT to a flat panel. People who bought flat panel sets a couple of years ago seem to be rapidly abandoning them in favor of even larger displays. Craig's List is flooded with used 32" LCD's, usually because the owner has "upgraded" to something even bigger. And we're supposed to be in a recession?
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I think people today place more emphasis on "keeping up with the Joneses" than they did back then and they are brainwashed into thinking that their life will be miserable if they don't upgrade to the latest TV or smartphone. Based on my experiences with selling used TV's, I could sell just about any kind of TV up until the mid 2000's. At that point, people got very picky about what they'd own.
As recent as the '90's, it was not uncommon to see 20-30 year old TV's still in use; but, most of their owners were older people who came from an era when it was very difficult to work for something and they are not quick to get rid of an item just because it's so-called "outdated". Much of the younger generation does not think this way and will simply run up more credit card debt in order to get the newest thing that's out there.
As far as B&W TV's, I know for a fact that 22" B&W consoles and metal cabinet table models were available at least until the early '80's and 19" B&W's were available at least until the mid '80's; so, that shows that there was a demand for such sets a good 20-30 years after color was introduced. I think the reasons B&W TV's held on as long as they did was because a lot of older people claimed that a color TV hurt their eyes and because back then, a basic 19" color TV still cost several hundred dollars while a 19" B&W set could be bought for $125-$150. Now, one can go out and buy a decent sized flatscreen TV for what a 19" color TV cost 30 years ago.
As for me, I watch so little TV that I don't care if it's B&W or color. Regardless of the set, I can still get a picture of what's going on and I don't think the time will ever come that I feel the need to spend hundreds of dollars on a new TV just so I can see more picture detail.