In November 2007 Sony has started to sell their 11" OLED TV (the XEL-1). This is an exciting move by Sony, but this cannot be considered a real commercial OLED TV. They are only producing 2,000 of those units monthly, the price is extremely high - around 1,800$ for a 11" TV (and Sony admits they are losing money on each unit). Even the power consumption of those TVs is rather high - higher than compatible LCDs.
But still Sony is clearly committed to OLEDs - and it seems like they are betting the future of their TV business on OLEDs. Sony were late to the Flat-Panel TV "party" and are no longer considered innovators. Now they are trying to be in the forefront of the technology again, and OLEDs is their technology of choice.
When Sony announced their intention to sell OLED TVs in the end of 2007, several companies had to comment on their own next-gen display strategy - and almost all of them have plans for OLED TVs.
Samsung is also deep into OLEDs, and they are currently producing small AMOLED panel (~2"), expecting to sell more than 2 million panels in Q4 2007. Samsung has said they will make 21" OLED monitors by 2009, and will have 42" Full HD TVs by 2010.
CMEL (spinned off Chi Mei Optoelectronics) is devoted to OLEDs, and are also making AMOLED panels today. CMEL expects to offer 32" OLED TVs during 2010. CMEL are making quite a bit of noise lately - with their AMOLED panels and also showing off a 25" prototype. CMEL is using UDC's PHOLED materials in their displays.
Sumitomo chemicals, who recently acquired CDT and are into OLED chemicals, say they have plans to make a P-OLED TV by 2009 or 2010. Toshiba is also touting 30" TVs by 2009 - they will be using TMDisplay's P-OLED panels.
Other companies include Epson who's building a production line capable of 21" panels, LG Philips who's making AMOLED panels, and Canon who said they will make small OLED TVs (they still tout SED for large TVs).
So what can we expect in 2008? Hopefully we'll continue to see all those company make advances towards their OLED TV goals. Sony will be interesting to watch, as they didn't yet announce any definite dates for a larger, and better priced television. We should also be looking for larger (>3") AMOLED panel being produced an incorporated into devices such as PDAs and A/V players. With any luck we might be hearing of medium-sized panels (~10") being made, and perhaps even used in small laptop computers. Obviously we need to see a huge drop in prices - so perhaps 2008 is a bit optimistic for an OLED laptop that's really competitive.
