Sony Brightens Prospects of OLED

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://news.com.com/2100-1041_3-1016564.html?tag=fd_top' target='_blank'>http://news.com.com/2100-1041_3-101...html?tag=fd_top</a><br /><br /></div>"Sony is increasing its commitment to organic light-emitting diode display technology by further investing in a joint venture to produce OLED screens and use them in mobile devices. Tokyo-based Sony announced Thursday that it will invest another $76.6 million (9 billion yen) in a joint venture with Toyota Industries as a way of speeding the production OLED displays. Sony said mass production of OLED panels will begin in the spring of next year. The joint venture, called ST-LCD, currently produces liquid-crystal display screens. The initial OLED panels, which will be about 2 inches diagonal, will be used in mobile devices from Sony."

[ricksfiona]

This is very good news for OLED technology. This advancement couldn't come fast enough. No wonder regular LCD screens are becoming so much cheaper.

[David Johnston]

Unfortunately, with all the marketeering about OLED I can see them being priced a lot higher than normal TFT's, despite them being cheaper to produce. People (including dorks like me!) will probably end up paying a premium for something that's meant to be cheap...

That's the pessimistic view. Who knows, maybe the industry will do what consumers want and put a sensible price tag on OLED displays...

[FredMurphy]

Products are usually priced to represent what people are willing to pay rather than what it cost to produce. If it's better people will pay more. I'm sure if OLED proves to be better than LCD they will start out more expensive and we'll be happy to pay. Give it time and prices will come down. We all benefit in the end.

The frustrating bit for me will be seeing great screens in well designed Sony products that I'm personally not keen on for other reasons. (e.g. Palm rather than Pocket PC, Memory Stick rather than SD or CF.) Once again this shouldn't be an issue for very long anyway.

[David Johnston]

Very true... it's just the waiting for the low prices that I can't stand!

Incidentally, did anyone notice the first OLED consumer product has been released? The Kodak LS633 - I saw a review in T3 and also a few reviews across the web and the screen does look incredible. Given it's features, it's actually priced a bit cheaper than similar specced digital cameras!

It's worth doing a search on Google for reviews. It'll be interesting to see how popular it becomes.

[surur]

Products are usually priced to represent what people are willing to pay rather than what it cost to produce. If it's better people will pay more. I'm sure if OLED proves to be better than LCD they will start out more expensive and we'll be happy to pay. Give it time and prices will come down.


Lets not forget paying back development costs. The first 3-5 years of a product profits are usually dedicated to R&D payback. That is why we have the patent system, so some-one cant just swoop in and make a killing without the prior investment. So basically I dont expect these things to become really cheap for at least 3 years after they come into mass production.. say about 2006.......

Surur