Sony drops OLED in favour of FED TVs?

Sony has announced it will be releasing TVs with yet another next-gen display technology. FED, which stands for field emission display are to go into mass production in late 2009, so you have a bit of time to save up. This is an interesting move for Sony as they have been big supporters of OLED TVs, but it would appear they are now hedging their bets with this joint venture which will see Sony take over a plant run by Pioneer to begin production of televisions using FED technology.

Does this spell the end of Sony’s support for OLED TVs? Stan Glasgow, the president and COO of Sony Electronics, said at a dinner in San Francisco, that there is not much market for OLED TVs because they are small, very expensive and hard to make. So he doesn’t seem to have much faith in OLED TVs. Televisions created using FED technology on the other hand can be manufactured more cheaply and to much larger sizes, according to gizmodo they may even be cheaper than LCD because FED TVs have fewer components. Does this mean Sony will be pushing FED more than OLED? Read on for more information and pictures.

FED can be thought of as cathode ray tube’s, younger, fitter, thinner cousin. They both work by emitting electrons that excite phosphor dots which then create the image you see on the screen. Engineers have taken these basic principles and attached a jet pack to them to create FED. Instead of using one tube, FED uses a grid of carbon nanotubes which enable the engineers to create a supper thin television that has all the advantages of CRT without, it would seem, any of the disadvantages. FED screens will have deep blacks and zero motion blur, and even though the images shown here seem to have screen flicker the specs say this shouldn’t be the case as the technology supports 24 to 240 frames per second refresh so we will just have to wait till 2009 to find out if that is the case.

The TVs in the images are to demonstrate the technology and are not full size, but the plan for 2009 is to release a 30 inch version which will be pushed to broadcasting and medical applications first then according to gizmodo, Sony will break into the consumer market with a 60 inch version, unfortunately there is no information on when this will be but we will keep you informed.

With FED TVs being easier and cheaper to make than OLED, could this move be Sony’s way of saying goodbye to OLED TVs?

[Source: Gizmodo, AV watch]