April 22, 2008

Samsung OLED TV's Coming In 2009?

071227_p10_samsung%281%29.jpg It was only a couple months back that Samsung announced that they were ramping up investment in OLED manufacturing, tweaking the production of 20-inch panels on a test line partly to determine the viability of producing larger panels to be used in OLED TV's. Within a couple of weeks the company announced they would begin mass production of a 14-inch panel next year, most likely meaning Samsung will be debuting an OLED laptop in the near future (CES 2009?), and larger 40-42 inch panels by 2010.

The major issue with the production of larger panels has been economies of scale. Production costs so far have limited the amount of OLED panels manufacturers can produce and by not having the advantage of a large supply, profit margins have been slim. For you and me this means a hold on the big screen OLED TV we've been waiting for so patiently. However, Samsung has just announced that they will in fact reach economies of scale next year, promising larger size applications in 2009. Could this mean we'll see Samsung OLED TV's on the shelves by sometime next year?

The company currently can pump out 1.5 million panels annually, only half of the 3 million needed to reach economies of scale, says Samsung. But next year the 3 million will be reached and are expected to double to 6 million in 2010. Once production costs become more manageable, we'll start seeing OLED TV's become mainstream. Is it just me or does the OLED TV timeline seem to be getting shorter? They don't seem 5 years away anymore, do they?

Via Digitimes