Manufacturers all over the world are starting to lay out plans for developing OLED products due to the wide variety of usage for which the technology can be applied, such as for display screens, flexible displays and lighting.
Most OLED manufacturers are located in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and the US. In Taiwan, AU Optronics (AUO) will reportedly have a 4.3-inch AMOLED panel available in the third quarter in the hopes that it can boost smart phone panel orders as well as compete more with Samsung Mobile Display (SMD) and LG Display.
Additionally, Japan's Sony and Panasonic plan to jointly develop next-generation OLED panels and modules by each utilizing their core printing technologies. They plan to jointly develop printing method-based next-generation OLED technology, which will be suitable for low-cost mass production of large, high-resolution OLED panels and modules. Sony and Panasonic aim to establish mass-production technology by 2013, by integrating their technologies to improve the overall efficiency of development.
OLED TVs are also expected to make their first appearance in the second half of this year with Samsung and LG leading the pack. Samsung will reportedly put out a 55-inch ES9500 model that will have a price tag of 10 million Korean won (US$8,760) while LG's 55-inch EM9600 model is not expected to hit the market until 2013.
In response to this phenomenon, China-based panel makers such as Visionox and Changhong along with many others have formed an OLED industry alliance in order to boost AMOLED TV sales as well as to stay competitive with Korea-, Taiwan-, and Japan-based OLED makers in the panel industry. Sources said alliances like these are growing and will be popular with TV makers and their supply chains, particularly those who make OLED TVs, in the future.
Moreover, OLED lighting is gaining more attention globally. The advantages of OLED lighting include no mercury and UV, and it does not have overheating problems like LED lighting. OLED lighting is also self-luminous, has high-energy efficiency, and generates less heat. It is good for lighting fixtures that may be only a few centimeters thin as well as for placement on walls or ceilings.
Manufacturers all over the world such as Sharp, Toshiba, Mitsubishi Electric, Osram, NEC-Lighting, Panasonic, and Hitachi-Lighting began promoting OLED lamps in 2009 at competitive prices, and are planning to push the technology even more with consumers. However, OLED lighting production costs at this stage are still high and give off a luminosity that is half as bright as fluorescent bulbs, but industry sources said this is slowly improving.
Sources added that it would still be another 3-5 years before OLED TVs and OLED lighting become the mainstream in their related fields.
