Mitsubishi TVs Featuring 40-Inch Screens Go on Sale Today for $5,000

Mitsubishi said Thursday that it is introducing a $5,000 TV set that provides the largest screen ever offered.

The new set from the Japanese company contains a 40-inch screen, five inches bigger in diagonal measurement than the largest tube-type sets now on the market.

While some might question the wisdom of launching an expensive consumer product in the midst of a recession, Mitsubishi said there should be enough people who always want to own the latest gadget to enable it to sell the 4,000 sets it plans to make this year.

“It’s not the mass market,” said Terry O’Flynn, president of Mitsubishi’s U.S. Consumer Electronics Group based in Cypress. “It’s going to be the techno person that wants to be the first on the block. The upscale professional. Celebrities and stars.”

It is a territory Mitsubishi is familiar with. The company pioneered the 35-inch set in 1986. Competitors did not follow with their own versions until five years later, O’Flynn said during an interview in New York.

Paul Goldenberg, owner of Paul’s TV in La Habra, said he thinks the 40-inch set will grow quickly in popularity. “After a couple years, it’s going to be what everyone wants,” he said. Paul’s, the nation’s largest single-store seller of Mitsubishi TVs, plans to start sales of the 40-inch direct-view models today.