Panasonic Rolling Out 150-Inch Plasma at CES

It's about to become the worst-kept secret of next week's CES: Panasonic is rolling out an unthinkably large, 150-inch plasma television (yes, a plasma), massively eclipsing the current size leader, a 108-inch LCD from Sharp that was unveiled at CES last year.

Sure, we've all been expecting an even bigger television to set a record at CES (it happens every year), but at the bigger-than-100-inches level, things tend to increase in tiny increments. Case in point: In 2006, the biggest TV was 103 inches (pictured above; it's now on sale for $70,000). Predictions for 2008 had previously ranged around 110 or 115 inches. But 150? It looks like a typo, but it's completely real.

In addition to knocking you out with a television which is almost as big as an SUV, Panasonic is proving that plasma is not dead. In fact, it's apparently more alive than ever. Giant screens like this may be seem like mere one-upmanship over other manufacturers, but there's more to it than that: Big screens mean bigger glass, which creates a trickle-down effect for smaller sets (and by smaller, I mean sets you might actually purchase), making them in turn larger and less expensive, as the companies can carve more (and/or bigger) displays from a single pane. Sure, you might not really buy a 150-inch television, but you might get 200 bucks knocked off your 50-inch set instead.

And what of LCD? I haven't seen any early reports (yet), but it's certain that some monster sets will be on display. Will they approach the 150 inches that Panasonic is set to wow us with next week? I doubt it, but I'll be there to find out. And I have a camera.

LINK: Panasonic preparing 150-inch PDP screen