The International Consumer Electronics Show isn’t the only new thing in town this week in Las Vegas. On Sunday Sony began selling its slick and slim next-generation OLED TV through the Sony Style store in the city and at other outlets across the U.S., it said Sunday.
OLED is an emerging flat-panel display technology that uses an organic material that emits its own light, so no backlight is needed and that means displays are much thinner. The screens also consume less power than competing technologies, handle fast-moving images better and offer good color reproduction.
Sony’s 11-inch OLED TV is just 3 millimeters thick — considerably less than that of competing flat-panel sets — and it delivers a picture that all agree is beautiful but also expensive. The XEL-1 costs about US$2,500, which is considerably more than a comparable but thicker set built with LCD.
For Sony OLED represents much more than just a new TV. The company has invested and is investing a significant amount of time and money into OLED in an attempt to take the lead in the flat-panel display market.
“The name of the game at CES and at Sony remains the next champion product,” Sony CEO Howard Stringer said introducing the TV at a CES news conference. “Once in a great while a product comes along that not only has the ability to set the standard for others to strive for but symbolizes where Sony is as a company today as well as our direction for the future. I believe we have such a product.”
With Sunday’s launch the TV is now available in two markets. The first was Japan, where Sony launched it in December last year. Initial results were very good and Sony sold-out it’s monthly production of 2,000 units almost immediately despite the high price.
The XEL-1 is based on a prototype that was first shown by Sony at CES last year. At this year’s CES Sony is also showing a 27-inch prototype screen that gives attendees “a glimpse of the future.”
South Korea’s Samsung Electronics is also showing OLED technology at CES. The company plans to show a 14-inch and 31-inch prototype screens on its booth at CES.
