Sony is really sinking quite a chunk of money into OLED (organic light-emitting diode) technology. A couple of months ago, they announced $200 million to develop and produce larger OLED panels.
Today Sony announced that they plan on having large OLED displays ready to go by 2009, and they are authorizing an additional $210 million to make sure this happens.
Sony’s only OLED screen currently in production is a small 11-inch OLED, the XEL-1, but the promise of much larger OLED screens is fairly exciting. Samsung, Sony’s major competitor for large screen OLED displays, is also planning a 2009 release for their medium-to-large OLED screens.
There is no word on when in 2009 these sets will be made available or what kinds of prices we will have to pay to get one.