Toshiba postpones OLED TV plans

Toshiba Corp of Japan has delayed the development of ultra-thin OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) TVs, because of the high costs associated with mass production.

Its plan to develop a 30in OLED TV for sale in 2009 has been abandoned. However, the company still plans to produce small OLED displays for mobile phones in 2008.

The company hasn’t cancelled its OLED TV plans completely - it will keep an eye on the market and would consider restarting development if it becomes commercially viable to do so.

Toshiba is concerned about the higher power consumption of OLED TVs. On a 30in model, this is up to three times more than the power consumption of an LCD panel of the same size.

Toshiba is also concerned about the production costs of the OLED panel for the 30in model, which was being developed by TMD.

Lower cost production technology is expected to be available around 2010, which would help make OLED TVs more cost-effective to manufacture.

Sony has already released an OLED TV and Samsung is planning to 14in OLED TVs by 2010.