Samsung may ship 42-inch AMOLED TV by late 2011
updated 09:20 am EDT, Fri May 14, 2010
Samsung could have first true large OLED TV set
A new report discovered today suggests Samsung will be first with a practically sized OLED TV. The company's "5.5G" production line for AMOLED displays should be finished soon enough this year that it could start test production of a 42-inch AMOLED TV before the end of 2010 and ramp up to full production in the first half of 2011. Many of Samsung's other displays would be helped, as it could now make four 30-inch sets at a time and twice as many cellphone-sized screens.
OLED TVs have already been on the market for years thanks to sets like Sony's XEL-1 and LG's EL9500, but cruder production techniques have left these sets with very high prices even though they top out at 11 and 15 inches. Competitors have usually had very modest plans. LG doesn't expect more than 30 inches in 2011, while Sony has no 2010 OLED TVs planned while it gets its finances back on track. It went so far as to drop the XEL-1 in Japan due to poor sales.
OLED TVs are still expected to remain expensive next year, but the larger sizes for similar money may draw ultra-high end viewers who would have otherwise passed on the color-rich, extremely thin TVs. Many analyst predictions have called for OLED going mainstream only by 2013 or 2014. [via OLED-Display]
