Stefan Mileschin

Sony and Panasonic are wining and dining each other's executives with the aim of developing the technology to mass produce next-generation OLED televisions.

The pair want to compete with South Korean rivals in the technology which will kill off current LCD TVs.

According to Reuters, the cunning plan will take on a similar alliance between Samsung and LG to sell 55-inch OLED televisions, which can be as slim as 4 millimetres, consume less power and offer sharper images.

Sony and Panasonic have to share organic light emitting diode (OLED) technologies to take on Samsung and LG.

Kyoko Ishii, senior coordinator of global corporate PR for Panasonic, is refusing to confirm any deal. He said that Panasonic will continue its development and verification of OLED based on the result of research the company has been doing at its laboratories.

It has not even thought when it would try to commercialise the technology yet, Ishii claimed.

Sony, which created the the world's first OLED TV in 2007, halted production of the $2,000 screens three years later because of the global downturn.

Currently Sony makes OLED screens costing as much as $26,000 for high-end customers. Needless to say it is not saying anything about the rumours either.

It has been predicted that shipments of OLED TVs may grow to 2.1 million sets in 2015 from just 34,000 this year, according to research firm IHS.

http://news.techeye.net/hardware/son...eam-up-on-oled