Samsung: Blu-ray has 5 years left; OLED tech next big thing
Samsung has revealed their plans for the future: Blu-ray is clearly winning now (with maybe five more years left in its lifetime), so they might want to focus on other technological areas in which they can win. If Sony‘s got the media format down pat now, Samsung will be striving to bring us competitive OLED displays in the future.
With the battle between Blu-ray and HD-DVD long over now, other companies are now trying to circumscribe to the chosen format for this generation. And though Samsung Electronics praises the Blu-ray format, it seems that they have other things in mind.
Samsung UK‘s consumer electronics director, Andy Griffiths, sees that the Blu-ray format has about five years left in its lifetime before some new media format might come along. He adds, “I certainly wouldn’t give it 10 [years],” and that he thinks 2008 will be Blu-ray’s biggest year. “It’s going to be huge. We are heavily back-ordered at the moment.”
While that’s all good, Griffiths says they’ll be staking their investments on OLED technology. Even though there are a couple devices out there that are already using the enegy-efficient ultra-thin displays, the only thing that’s holding it back from mainstream distribution is its high manufacturing costs. Says Griffiths:
We will launch the OLED technology when it’s at a price that will be appealing to the consumer, unfortunately that’s not yet.
He states 2010 as a prime year for when OLED would be mainstream enough. Which I believe is pretty reasonable amount of time. More and more OLED devices could be introduced within the next couple months, however, it might take until 2010 before it becomes as marketable as Blu-ray is now.
In the Berlin IFA tradeshow earlier this month, Samsung had topped off Sony‘s 27″ OLED TV when they showed their 31-incher screen. As closing, Griffiths projects optimism far into the future:
In 2012 we will be in a true HD world. Everything from your television to your camcorder will be offering you pictures in high-definition, and we plan to offer you that HD world from all angles.
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Via Pocket-init