Why Samsung's curved-screen TV might be a "game changer"

(CBS News) Do you need Samsung's 55-inch $9,000 curved-screen television?

You may not need it, but, according to Brian Cooley, editor-at-large at CNET, you're going to want one.

It's the newest innovation in TV technology announced on Tuesday by Samsung, and is just one of the cutting-edge choices now on the market. But Cooley called this television "a game-changer."

"This will be the TV you want and have in a few years," Cooley said. "It's $9,000 now, but I'll tell you, that's $6,000 less than expected, so the glass is half-full."

Samsung slashes price of curved OLED TV to $8,999

The curved screen is perhaps the most noticeable aspect of the television, but it's the new organic light-emitting diode (OLED) screen technology that's actually going to "wow" consumers, according to Cooley.

"We see thousands of new tech products come in to CNET every year. I'm excited by about five of them every year and this would be in that category," Cooley said. "The curved screen to me is a sub-headline. ... It's a little more immersive, they say. I think you have to be positioned exactly right for that to work, but let's face it, eyeballs are curved, this does tend to map to that. What's really happening here is this OLED panel technology -- means this is the first TV ever that can show black. That is what TVs have always struggled with. Once you get that right, the color and the contrast all come into line."

The television also features a way for two people to watch two different programs at the same time. It's called "the marriage saver." Viewers wear 3D-like glasses to view their program and a set of ear buds to capture their show's audio.

Cooley said of tech developers, "They've salvaged 3-D TV technology to use it in a different way," adding, "We'll see how this plays out in real life, but it is an excellent technology in terms of how it works -- the social aspect of it, that's (to be determined)."

For more on this new technology and more about what's coming in the mobile world, watch Cooley's full "CTM" appearance above.