Two years after launching its 11-inch XEL-1 OLED TV, Sony has ceased selling the product in its native Japan.
While OLED has been heralded as the future of flat screen TVs due the technology's slim profile and impressive image quality, it seems that Sony will focus on LED-backlit displays with 3D capability.
Japanese TV market research company DisplaySearch estimates that Sony produced about 2,000 OLED TVs last year, with each XEL-1 unit selling for 200,000 yen (about £1,400).
"As flat panel TVs are getting bigger and cheaper, hurdles for OLED models have become higher, at least in the short term," said Hisakazu Torii, vice president of DisplaySearch.
"We will continue to consider new products and applications including OLED TVs," said Sony's spokesman Shigenori Yoshida, while the company confirmed that it would continue research and development and production of OLED TVs in Europe and North America.
Several other manufacturers, including LG and Samsung have recently shown off OLED TVs of various sizes, so hopefully this isn't a sign of trouble ahead for much-vaunted technology.
Via Reuters
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mobius
February 16th 2010
1. It's the only viable near future new display technology so I doubt it'll go away. LED backlighting and 3D are merely functional add ons to existing display technology, so it doesn't preclude the new displays being brought in on a larger scale (which'd do away with the likes of backlighting anyway). It's just that LCD (and to a certain extent plasma) have quite a bit more life in them yet especially as priorities have shifted from the display technology itself to ancillary effects.
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