13
Jan
2012
Gizmodo: The televisions that are going to be invading our living rooms in 2012, the ones that Samsung and LG and the rest have been trotting out this week at CES? They’re the most exciting gadgets of the year, and not because of any apps or gimmicks or third dimensions being shoved down our throats. In fact, they’re wonderful in spite of all that. (more…)
09
Dec
2011
Pocket-Lint: Panasonic is hoping to take on the likes of Nokia, Samsung, HTC and Motorola by making a big splash in the European and global smartphone markets. (more…)
25
Jul
2011
Engadget: LG is apparently tired of this tiny OLED stuff. 15-inch TVs and 4-inch cellphones? What is this, 2009? The company has decided it’s time to super-size the organically-powered panels and plans to introduce a 55-inch HDTV in mid 2012. We’ve got faith it can deliver too — last summer the Korean manufacturer was showing off a 31-inch model (above) and it sounds like it’s shifting focus completely towards larger sizes. CEO Kwon Young-soo has said that IPS technology is much better suited for the mobile space. Of course, LG has promised impressively-sized panels before and, even if such a set does make it to market, chances are you’ll have to take out a second mortgage to afford one.
04
Mar
2010
Japan Corporate News: Sony Corp. has pulled the plug in Japan on sales of a next-generation flat TV due to sluggish demand, a setback for a product the company had trumpeted as a sign of its revival as an innovator.
Sony had stopped production of ultra-thin TVs using organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology for Japan, just a little over 2 years since it launched its first set. It will keep selling the TVs in overseas markets.
OLED displays use organic, or carbon-containing compounds that emit light when electricity is applied. They produce crisp images and do not need backlighting, making them slimmer and more energy-efficient than LCDs.
03
Nov
2009
CNet: At a Japanese trade show on Thursday, an LG executive predicted that OLED panels will be cheaper than LCD ones by 2016.
Won Kim, LG’s vice president of OLED sales and marketing, also indicated that the company plans to release OLED TVs of 20 inches and above in 2010, 30 inches and above in 2011, and 40 inches and above in 2012.
“Forty-inch and larger OLED panels will be fairly expensive in 2012, but they will be available in the market,” said Kim. “OLED panels will cost less than LCD panels in 2016.”
Given the horrendously high price of OLED TVs so far, many videophiles will feel that the only proper response to such a claim is to engage in a vigorous beard-stroking session. We can’t quite suppress the small hope in our blackened hearts that the prophesy will prove true though, especially in light of the delightful LG OLED offerings we’ve seen so far.
13
Oct
2009
Electronista: At the CEATEC show in Japan recently, Mitsubishi Electric showed off a 155-inch prototype OLED TV that is modular and can be upsized at will.
It is composed of 720 OLED blocks, each sized at 1.5 square inches, but can be made bigger or smaller as necessary.
This could be used in outdoor displays, like in ballpark stadiums and on buildings for advertising. The modular nature also means the large screens can be curved in large installations, to follow the curvature of a building, wall or wherever else it’s installed.
Thanks to the OLED technology used in the creation of this system, brightness is said to be three times greater than in regular LCD TVs. Organic compounds in the pixels degrade over time, however, with the set’s life rated at 20,000 hours of continuous use.
Mitsubishi has not released pricing nor a shipping date for the modular OLED technology.
18
Aug
2009
Electronista: A larger Sony OLED TV will now have to wait until 2010 at the earliest, an apparent leak signaled today. Once on track for the end of the year, the set now isn’t slated to show until next year at the earliest.
Those reportedly passing on the information to the Wall Street Journal have portrayed it as an economic move, as Sony likely can’t afford to worsen its losses by selling a TV that has little to no profit, as it does with the 11-inch XEL-1.
The company posted its first annual loss in 14 years this year and blamed it partly on a sagging TV business affected by the poor world economy.
To shore up its efforts, the company has focused more attention on lower-end TVs and has seen CEO Sir Howard Stringer personally take over the presidency of the electronics group to help reorganize it.
A delay of this level would have little impact on Sony’s core health but would be a symbolic loss to rival LG, which now generates more revenue and is still on track to launch a 15-inch OLED TV as soon as December.
Sony hasn’t officially commented on the accuracy of the claims.
09
Jun
2009
Engadget: Getting tired of flexible OLED prototypes that are about as ready for retail as that cold fusion reactor your uncle Harry is building in his garage? Yeah, we are too, but it seems the industry is getting a little closer to reality, the latest step coming courtesy of Arizona State University’s Flexible Display Center and Universal Display.
Researchers at the pair have managed to produce flexible OLED displays using the same production techniques used to create standard, rather less bendy LCD displays, enabling the transistors that control the pixels to be applied to plastic, rather than the glass they typically find themselves embedded within.
They glue a piece of plastic onto glass, feed it through the LCD manufacturing process, then peel the two apart like a high-tech Fruit Roll-Up. That technique was used to create the 4.1-inch monochrome display shown above — which is for now just another prototype that won’t be showing up in any devices any time soon.
28
May
2009
Gizmag: Could the end be nigh for plasma and LCD screens? Seiko Epson has recently announced a further development in ink-jet technology, which does away with some of the problems still dogging the much-vaunted organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display technology. In particular, Seiko Epson has signaled it is moving toward a 37-inch HD OLED screen by creating a uniform deposit of organic material while removing the uneven layering of the ink-jet method.
To date, OLED technology has been used for smaller-scale screens, due to an inability to reliably form uniform organic layers on larger panels or substrates, as they are known. Until recently the most widely used process for depositing organic materials was vacuum thermal evaporation (VTE). This method, however, is fraught with technical complications and is one of the main reasons that mass production has been hindered.
21
Apr
2009
EngadgetHD: Fall back Samsung, LG seems ready to deliver the medium sized OLED HDTV you aren’t in 2010, if this road from DigiTimes is followed tightly. 15-inch OLEDs by the end of this year, and 32-inchers next?
The battle seems to have taken a swing in one direction, but we’ll wait till there are displays available to declare a winner.
30
Mar
2009
EngadgetHD: Hey, wait just a cotton-pickin’ minute here! Last April, we caught Samsung asserting that it figured affordable medium-to-large size OLED TVs would be available in 2009 / 2010. Now, we’ve got Samsung Europe’s new President and CEO telling us that “mainstream” OLED sets are still five years out.
Believe it or not, said bigwig was quoted as saying that “when it comes to OLED, we have several issues to overcome in terms of technology and production cost,” and that it would be “at least four to five years before we see OLED in the market place.”
Of course, such a quip is to be expected given the quantity of dollars Sammy has poured into LCD, but we’re still a bit dismayed by the news. Hear that, entrepreneurs of the world? The time’s about right for an OLED-only startup to beat every last one of these traditional powerhouses to the punch.
16
Mar
2009
DisplaySearch: The OLED lighting market is setting the stage to take off in 2011, with OLED lighting revenues forecasted to surpass PMOLED displays in the 2013/2014 timeframe, reaching $6 billion by 2018, according to DisplaySearch’s newly-released report, OLED Lighting in 2009 and Beyond: The Bright Future.
“The unique features of OLED lighting are inspiring the imagination of designers. OLED lighting devices emit from the surface, can be made flexible/rollable, and even transparent like a window or reflective like a mirror.
OLED lighting is thin, rugged, lightweight, and has fast switch-on times, wide operating temperatures, no noise and is environmentally friendly. The power efficiency of OLED lighting has also improved dramatically in recent years,” said Jennifer Colegrove, PhD, Director of Display Technologies at DisplaySearch.
“Hundreds of millions of dollars have been invested in OLED lighting, especially in Europe, the US, and Japan. Although OLED displays have been in mass production for about a decade, OLED lighting just started sampling and small volume production. This is due to the fact that OLED displays and OLED lighting face different challenges,” added Dr. Colegrove.