Sony flexible display

from this site.

Sony today unveiled a new screen that will forever change the future of electronic devices. This new 2.5-inch OLED screen is made of a glass substrate that allows you to casually bend the screen. Since the display is wafer-thin, you one day might see these inside magazines as advertisements or perhaps on the back of a cellphone for viewing movies. It uses organic TFT technology to keep clarity in-tact and to retain its 0.3mm thickness.

This display will allow for the development of bigger, better, lighter, and “softer” electronics Sony says. In case you were wondering, the screen has a resolution of 120×169 pixels and weighs only 1.5 grams. Extremely impressive. Imagine if this became a low-cost media solution years down the road. DIY video players made from magazine ads? I think so.

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From this site

No one can deny OLED displays are superior in quality to LCD or Plasma screens. One problem which has been constraining the commercialization of large-size OLED TVs, however, is the high level of power consumption.

On Monday however, Sony and Japanese chemical company Idemitsu announced they succeeded in increasing the internal quantum efficiency (IQE) in deep-blue fluorescent OLED devices to 28.5%. I know, right? Until today, 25% was believed to be the maximum level of luminous efficiency achievable. Among the RGB colors, blue OLED devices are the most energy-intensive.

The two companies have been jointly working on the improvement of OLED display technology since 2005. Sony Japan plans to mass-produce big-screen OLED TVs (20 inches and larger) at the end of 2009.

This is definitively good news since Sony’s current OLED TV XEL-1 is cool but simply too small (11 inches) and too expensive.

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Toshiba is trying to be even faster then Sony...

From this site

Toshiba isn’t about to let Sony get the upper hand in the television market. Yesterday, [October 3rd, 2007] Sony announced an 11-inch OLED TV that is only 0.3-inches thick, has a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio, and costs $1745. Considered a huge leap in technology, now other companies are scrambling to get on the bandwagon. Toshiba is claiming that by 2009, a 30-inch OLED TV will be available for purchase, ready to compete with anything Sony might have up its sleeve.

One of the major issues with OLED displays is lifespan. Sony’s 11-incher is supposed to only get three to three-and-a-half years of continuous use. Though the average consumer probably won’t be watching that much television, it still isn’t comforting knowing that your TV is going to die eventually. No word yet on what price Toshiba’s 30-inch model will go for.

Toshiba pledges 30in OLED TV will ship in 2009