Sanyo Bails Out on OLED Joint-Venture with Eastman Kodak

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.teardown.com/tas/subscribers/comp_alert/2006_1Q/comp_alert_060227.aspx#CA060227-04' target='_blank'>http://www.teardown.com/tas/subscri...spx#CA060227-04</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Sanyo Electric of Japan has announced that the company would liquidate its OEL (Organic Electroluminescent) LCD joint venture with Eastman Kodak. The Japanese electronics maker tied up with Kodak in 1999 and launched the joint venture, SK Display in an attempt to commercialize OEL displays. However, its OEL sales for the year ending March 2005 was close to zero. Sanyo Electric decided that continuous development of OEL is not appropriate as there is no way that OEL can compete against LCDs. Sanyo will shift its operating resources to its core business area. Kodak will continue its work on OEL and licensing, which means that the company will seek ways to commercialize active matrix OEL panels through collaboration with other companies while continuing development of materials and its OEL licensing business."</i><br /><br /><a href="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/old-vs-lcd-big.JPG"><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/old-vs-lcd-small.jpg" /></a><br /><span><i>[click image for larger version]</i></span><br /><br />The news item goes on to state that this may be a good thing after all - Sanyo wasn't able to dedicate much effort to OLED development due to their overall financial difficulties, and the hope is that Kodak can find a better partner, one willing to aggressively developer OLED to fruition. I sincerely hope that's the case, because OLED screens are utterly stunning in person. A quality OLED screen is like looking at a photograph rather than a computer monitor. <br /><br />I saw an interesting comparison at CES 2006 in the Samsung showroom - the photo above shows the same image displayed on OLED and LCD screens. Look at the <a href="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/old-vs-lcd-big.JPG">full-sized version</a> and you can see how the LCD screen shows vertical and horizontal striping, while the OLED screen only shows the image. And, trust me, this photo doesn't adequately do OLED justice. OLED screens were supposed to be "everywhere" by now if you believed the media in 2004, yet it's rare to find a device with an OLED screen. OLED screens in Pocket PCs, Smartphones, and portable media devices would enable a huge jump in visual quality - let's hope somebody steps up and partners with Kodak to give OLED the push it needs.<br /><br /><b>UPDATE:</b> Looks like Kodak has already created a <a href="http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060216/BUSINESS/602160352/1001">new partnership with LG</a>. Well that didn't take long!

[bluevolume]

Kodak already has teamed up with a new partner:
http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060216/BUSINESS/602160352/1001

I can't think of a better match for this type of technology than LG. Hopefully we'll finally get what we've been teased with up till now.

[Jason Dunn]

Kodak already has teamed up with a new partner...

Haha...I should have known. ;-)

[bluevolume]

I'm a local, so this was big news for us. I actually worked for the Yellow Box until recently, and had a chance to see a lot of the prototype OLED screens. I can confirm that they are spectacular, and have to be seen in person to really appreciate.

[fresh-popcorn]

I wonder what the hold up is with OLED.
I remember back a few years ago reading some magazines saying that most smaller electronics would all be using OLED and by 2008 or 2009 the Flexable displays would be incorporated into certain devices.

Maybe the holdup is stability? or Lifespan? or costs to manufacture? (I heard that it was actually cheaper to manufacture OLED displays but who knows.)

I havent been reading up on OLED in the past few years so i dont know what the progression has been since then.

[bluevolume]

The holdup is all three things you mentioned: stability, lifespan, and cost to manufacture. With all of the prototypes I saw, the technician was always very vocal about how careful we needed to be with it. I don't know whether it was just the nature of it being a prototype and the materials weren't up to standards, or if the OLED substrate itself was so fragile.

The lifespan has always been a concern as well, with certain colors like blue being very bad. I think they were able to overcome this somewhat recently, but it has always been an area that needed improvement before any mass production could begin.

Cost to manufacture is probably the biggest hurdle OLED still has to overcome. There are a lot of fundamental differences between OLED and LCD, both in the manufacturing and in the electronics they require to drive them. The fact that LCDs have gotten much bigger, better, and cheaper over the last few years, hasn't helped justify the investment on OLED either.

Kodak relesed a digital camera maybe 3 or 4 years ago that included an OLED screen on the back. It was only made available in the European market for some reason, but I had a chance to see one and it was really impressive. You could almost see if a shot was print-worthy simply by looking at the display on the camera -- something that is not possible with the lower quality LCDs that digital cameras usually have. I don't know how many of them were sold, or why they didn't make any more; there's probably an interresting story there somewhere.

[Tim Rapson]

It has been very interesting to watch how the technology vs. market vs. manufacturing, vs quality advantages, vs. all the other factors have been evolving in this.
The cost of LCDs seems to drop daily. I have no doubt that this is partly because of the threat of large scale OLED production. The same is going on in the desktop display market as LCDs push the old Cathode Ray Tube technology.
Personally, I don't think we need a screen any better than the one on my Zire 72 or like the one on an Axim X50v. I don't think they are getting the battery use savings that OLEDs promised and so why should a manufacturer spend even $2 extra per device for an OLED?
I see OLEDs dying. They did not capitalize quick enough on their now dwindling advantages.

[Menneisyys]

The holdup is all three things you mentioned: stability, lifespan, and cost to manufacture. With all of the prototypes I saw, the technician was always very vocal about how careful we needed to be with it. I don't know whether it was just the nature of it being a prototype and the materials weren't up to standards, or if the OLED substrate itself was so fragile.

Well, the way Sony implemented it in the VZ90 seems not to be more fragile than LCD's. The VZ90 users at the VZ90 1stSource forum (http://www.1src.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=137) don't seem to be reporting more cracked OLED screens than other PDA users with LCD screens.

[Menneisyys]

Personally, I don't think we need a screen any better than the one on my Zire 72 or like the one on an Axim X50v.

OLED screens are much better, particularly compared to the impossible-to-watch-for-more-than-some-hours-in-Landscape-mode x50v (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=38208). Even some LCD screens (for example, that of the hx4700/Pocket Loox 7xx/Universal - or, for that matter, all of the 2.8" HTC PPE models) are considerably better, more saturated and have a much better viewing angle in Landscape mode.

I don't think they are getting the battery use savings that OLEDs promised

VZ90 users state they have very good battery life. (I haven't personally measured this though.)

[Dyvim]

Kodak relesed a digital camera maybe 3 or 4 years ago that included an OLED screen on the back.

Sanyo is releasing a digital video camera this month that incorporates an OLED screen (the HD1) - I'll be curious to see how that turns out.

[Snail]

Once you've seen pictures / video on an OLED (like the VZ90), you never want to go back... Truly incredible quality. Only my bank manager stopped me buying one of those puppies!

[shindullin]

Sanyo is practically bankrupt and Kodak isn't all that much better off (which is why then needed a partner in the first place), so part of the problem is probably just money and marketing. A company with lots of money and manufacturing capacity like LG can build the factories themselves and market B2B like crazy. LG is really turning into the next Samsung.