Sony, Panasonic Call Off OLED TV Tie-Up - Wall Street Journal
Dec. 25, 2013 12:41 a.m. ET
TOKYO— Sony Corp. 6758.TO -0.67% Sony Corp. Japan: Tokyo ¥1792 -12 -0.67% Dec. 25, 2013 3:00 pm Volume : 8.42M P/E Ratio 26.87 Market Cap ¥1897.61 Billion Dividend Yield 1.40% Rev. per Employee ¥49,003,500 12/25/13 Sony, Panasonic Call Off OLED ... 12/23/13 Music Services Stream Into Cro... 12/23/13 Tribune Buys Gracenote From So... More quote details and news » 6758.TO in http://www.discuss.org/forum/image/p...AASUVORK5CYII= Your Value Your Change Short position and Panasonic Corp. 6752.TO +0.33% Panasonic Corp. Japan: Tokyo ¥1199 +4 +0.33% Dec. 25, 2013 3:00 pm Volume : 7.89M P/E Ratio 27.65 Market Cap ¥2980.46 Billion Dividend Yield 0.83% Rev. per Employee ¥25,094,100 12/25/13 Sony, Panasonic Call Off OLED ... 12/16/13 Canada Stocks to Watch: BlackB... 11/01/13 The Diverging Fates of Japan's... More quote details and news » 6752.TO in http://www.discuss.org/forum/image/p...AASUVORK5CYII= Your Value Your Change Short position have decided to call off a tie-up in developing production technology for big and ultrathin televisions, underscoring the challenges of bringing the next-generation TVs to the mass market.
People with knowledge of the matter said Wednesday the alliance in technology for organic light-emitting diode display, or OLED, panels for large-screen TVs is expected to end this month, only a year and a half after Japan's two major consumer electronics rivals decided to work together.
The screens offer improved image quality in a much thinner frame than existing liquid crystal displays, and are brighter and more energy efficient than LCDs. Sony developed the world's first OLED television, an 11-inch model released in 2007, but it has struggled to roll out additional models at larger sizes because the costs remained too high for a mass-market product.
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A photographer takes pictures of Sony's ultra thin organic light emmiting diode display at the annual Flat Panel Display exhibition in Tokyo on April 15, 2009. Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
The two Japanese rivals agreed last year to ally in OLED technology to bring down the costs and risks of developing a new display technology and building production facilities. Despite ending the alliance for now, they may still explore cooperating on production technology for OLED panels in the future, the people said.
One of the people said the sharing of information about a new production method using printing technologies had allowed the companies to enhance the speed of production for OLED TVs. Sony and Panasonic both exhibited a prototype ultrahigh-definition, 56-inch OLED television at this year's Consumer Electronics show.
Korean makers such as Samsung Electronics Co. 005930.SE -1.26% Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. S. Korea: KRX KRW1415000 -18000 -1.26% Dec. 24, 2013 3:00 pm Volume : 219,607 P/E Ratio 7.24 Market Cap KRW235146.39 Billion Dividend Yield 0.07% Rev. per Employee KRW2,485,940,000 12/23/13 Music Services Stream Into Cro... 12/23/13 Samsung Phone Studied for Poss... 12/19/13 China to Spend $5 Billion on M... More quote details and news » 005930.SE in http://www.discuss.org/forum/image/p...AASUVORK5CYII= Your Value Your Change Short position and LG Electronics Inc. 066570.SE +0.60% LG Electronics Inc. S. Korea: KRX KRW67400 +400 +0.60% Dec. 24, 2013 3:00 pm Volume : 541,856 P/E Ratio N/A Market Cap KRW10964.40 Billion Dividend Yield 0.30% Rev. per Employee KRW1,584,290,000 12/19/13 Samsung, LG to Show 105-Inch C... 12/19/13 Samsung, LG to Show 105-Inch C... 12/18/13 Canada Stocks to Watch: TransC... More quote details and news » 066570.SE in http://www.discuss.org/forum/image/p...AASUVORK5CYII= Your Value Your Change Short position have driven the market, both rolling out a 55-inch OLED television earlier this year. But even these manufacturers are still struggling to cost-effectively produce OLED screens to make the TVs affordable for most consumers.
Combined with the high costs, the increasing demand for ultra high-definition TVs, which promise four time the resolution of existing high definition LCD TVs, has also raised questions whether consumers are willing to try out another new technology and pay a premium for OLED TVs when prices for the new UHDTVs are already starting to come down. The shipments of UHDTVs are expected to total 1.9 million units in 2013 and rise to 12.7 million units in 2014, according to NPD DisplaySearch.
Write to Kana Inagaki at [email protected]
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