Panasonic will begin selling its 103in plasma TV by the end of the year, less than 12 months after the monster monitor - claimed to be the world's largest - was first demo'd in public, the company said today.

The 2.3 x 1.3m colossus weighs 215kg and has a full 1080i HD resolution. It has a brightness of 3000:1. Panasonic didn't say how much the beast will cost, but the price tag its likely to be a weighty one. That said, the company claimed it will sell around 5,000 of the displays in the first year, though most we suspect will be installed in stadiums, studios and corporate lobbies than in living rooms.

Panasonic first demo'd the 103in PDP at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January, then again at CeBIT in Hannover the following March. ®