Sony CEO Stringer promises 27-inch OLED TV within the next year

According to CEO Howard Stringer, Sony plans to launch a much larger version of its impressive OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) television within the next year.

Sony launched its first OLED TV, an 11-inch model, in late 2007. The set, which also has the distinction of being the first commercial OLED TV in the world, won great acclaim thanks to the smoother, sharper and more richly colored images it offered over today's LCD (liquid crystal display) and PDP (plasma display panel) technologies.

At the same time Sony began showing a prototype 27-inch OLED screen and last month in Tokyo showed an OLED screen that was just 0.3 millimeters thick. Stringer, speaking at The Wall Street Journal's "D: All Things Digital" conference in Carlsbad, California, on Wednesday, introduced the thin prototype and talked about commercialization.

"This is 0.3 millimeters wide, it's a glass, we can produce this in plastic and you can wrap it around your arm, we're not quite sure why you would want to," Stringer told Walt Mossberg, a columnist for the newspaper and co-host of the event. "We're looking for applications for the next generation of the plastic version but this will come out in a 27-inch version fairly soon."

"Within the next 12 months, we haven't given a date," he said when asked to be more specific on timing.

The set would no doubt be released in Japan first, and be released much later in North America like it's younger brother, the 11-inch model.

Stringer didn't give much away when it came to pricing. The 11-inch model, which Sony calls the XEL-1, carries a relatively high price-tag of US$2,500.

"It's a complicated process and obviously we are working very hard to find out how to mass-produce it but until then it's very expensive," said Stringer.

Stringer's reference to a plastic OLED panel was to a prototype announced by the company in May 2007. Then it showed a small 2.5-inch OLED manufactured on a plastic substrate. The screen has a resolution of 160 pixels by 120 pixels and showed full-motion video while being bent and rolled.

Sony hasn't announced any sales targets for its OLED televisions but said earlier this month that it plans to sell 17 million LCD televisions in the fiscal year from April. That's a jump of about 7 million sets on the previous year. Sony hopes to achieve this by producing more models for the mid-market based on panels it will procure from Sharp. High-end sets will continue to feature panels produced by S-LCD, the LCD panel manufacturing joint venture it has with Samsung Electronics.

Samsung's new OLED laptop

Samsung's new OLED laptop shows a thin body and odd, buttonless half-sized keyboard.

The picture of the newest Samsung OLED laptop concept suggests Samsung may actually be prepared to fight for a triple-spike in sales.

The 12.1" laptop is an ultra-thin AMOLED from Samsung's display devision. The 12.1" screen measures in at 1280 x 768 with infinite contrast.

While the display is definately on the mark, the keyboard may not be. A touch-sensitive keyboard seems less than ideal, not to mention only being half size. Notice the flap on the back? My guess is you fold that over the monitor to protect the screen where the halfling keyboard cannot.

Samsung OLED Laptop Coming in 2009?

It looks like Samsung might be bringing OLED to laptops, and they look pretty darn cool. Engadget is reporting that consumers could see the AMOLED (active matrix organic light-emitting diode) concept as soon as 2009. Which consumers, is always a question—Japan? U.S.? Anyone? The 12.1-inch prototype offers a 1280 x 768 resolution and self-illuminating screen. Plans for the super-thin package include 14- and 15.4-inch models. Aside from an improved picture quality, it has a mystery panel around the back that’s quite the buzz on the web.



-electronichouse

Sumitomo set to produce 40-inch OLED panels in 2009

Not that there was any doubt that OLED is on its way to larger sizes (hasn't it been since like 2005?), but Japanese firm Sumitomo Chemical announced its plans to produce 40-inch OLED panels for HDTVs some time in 2009, meaning Sumitomo-based TVs could hit the market in 2009 or 2010. Samsung's old-skool 40-inch OLED HDTV prototype shown above for scale.



-engadget

AM OLED Panel market in the first quarter is dominated by Korea

Korean companies are dominating AM OLED market that has just been growing. It's because Samsung SDI began mass-producing 4G AM OLED for the first time , preoccupying world market in the second half of last year.

Display Bank (CEO Kwon, Sang-se), a market research company for display, surveyed shipments of AM OLED in the first quarter. The result showed that SDI shipped about 2.56million units, accounting for over 90% of entire market. LG Display produced about 120,000 units. If combining two companies, they accounted for 95% of world AM OLED market in the first quarter.

Especially, the shipment of AM OLED panel for the first quarter already surpassed 2.2million units of total shipment in the last year to reach 2.7million units. That demonstrates AM OLED market has started to mature this year. Among AM OLED set products, mobile phone took 90% of total shipment. In the first quarter, shipment of AM OLED panel for mobile phone recorded 2.4million units. Display Bank predicted that the number will grow to over 3million units in the second quarter.

Samsung SDI supplied AM OLED panel for mobile phone and MP3 player to Samsung Electronics, Kyocera, Iriver, Nokia, Toshiba, Hitachi and Sony Ericson. From this year, it has started to supply panels for digital camera to Samsung Techwin. Among AM OLED panel companies, the company has most corporate clients. LG Display supplied the whole quantity of AM OLED panel for mobile phone to LG Electronics. It is expected that shipment will be monthly average 100,000 units from the second quarter.

Sony that produced AM OLED panel for 11 inch TV from last November remained about 1000 units of shipment. It will focus on panel for TV for the time being.

AM OLED panel for 2 inch mobile phone has been supplied at twice higher price than LCD panel due to low demand but the demand will grow steadily with high quality mobile phone leading the growth. Display Bank predicted that AM OLED panel shipment will reach as many as 4million units in the second quarter.

-korea IT news

Nokia 6600 Fold: Elegant and Functional

Nokia want to make a new trend well known – mobile phones which combine elegant shapes with modern technology. This trend has actually been around for a few years, but Nokia are coming up with new examples of how to develop it. With the 6600 they have designed a chic folder phone, which although it may not have the most features, looks good and can be used with UMTS.

The inside display is 5.4cm and has a 320 x 240 pixel resolution. OLED technology on the monochrome outer display is invisible until the user taps the outside of the phone. The alarm and incoming calls can be silenced in the same way. The 2 megapixel digicam with its double LED flash is also worth mentioning. The radio, stereo-Bluetooth, and an optional GPS adapter complete the package.

Although it all sounds good, features-wise it is nothing special. The main attraction of this phone is the design: the high quality display, the smooth back casing and the shiny front case were all made to impress. The planned launch is in the last quarter of the year, and Nokia expect it to cost around 327 euros.

-idealo.co.uk

Sony's New 2mm OLED Display

Sony is really pursuing this OLED thing to its biggest potential and put out a new display this week that measures just 2mm thick. We thought the original 3mm model was thin, but it seems Sony is still working on making the process even better.

The new display was recently shown off at the Display 2008 expo trade show in Japan, where Sony also debuted a new version of its $2500 11-inch XEL-1, the world's first mass-produced OLED TV. In this unit, the display panel "glass" measures just 0.3mm thick, about 1/4 the thickness of the prior model. We'll be terribly impressed when the pricing drops by about 1000% and sizes go up to 42-inches or more. Until then, it's fun to watch and wait.

A lot of Sony's technology is proof-of-concept and not slated for commercial release anytime soon - such as a thinner 3.5-inch prototype display which was shown off that measured a mere 0.2mm (0.008in) and featured a 320 x 220 pixel resolution. MP3 players and cell phones might be getting even thinner soon!

-audioholics