On August 6, 1998 the first HDTV was sold in San Diego. It was sold by Tom Campbell, who was then Corporate Director at DOW Stereo/Video. (Footnote: DOW Stereo/Video would later be bought by Ken Crane’s and Tom Campbell would become Corporate Director of Ken Crane’s. Ken Crane’s ceased operations and liquidated in the summer of 2010 after 60 years.)
The first HDTVs sold by DOW on that Thursday in August was the 56-inch Panasonic PT-56WXF90 which was described as a “56-inch-on-the-diagonal, cinema-style wide-screen” television. It cost $5,499 and was sold to DOW by Panasonic’s then Television Director, Bill Mannion. DOW was the first store to have HDTVs for sale and those first HDTVs were bought by Ed David with the second and third sets going to Bruce Colby (mentioned in the Newsweek piece) and Alan Farewell who was then general manager of the Hyatt Hotel in La Jolla.
Since this time, there have been many firsts sold. The first DVD player, the first digital camera, the first mobile phone, the first iPhone. Later this year, the first 4K or Ultra HD television sets will make their US introduction. LG plans to sell an 84-inch 4K TV for $20K ($19,999 MSRP to be exact) which it will release in October 2012. It is currently available in Korea. A month later, Sony’s 4K TV (also 84-inch) which make it’s US debut at $25K.
