Both Sony and Panasonic are in dire financial straits – the former posted a $5.7 billion loss and the latter suffered about $9 billion loss because of the damage done to its supply chain by the Japanese earthquake and subsequent tsunami. Of course, that doesn’t mean that innovation will stop, and both companies have found a way to develop next generation displays without having suffering the huge cost of developing the technology. Both firms are supposedly in talks to forge an alliance whose aim is to produce OLED panels, the next logical step when it comes to displays. While Sony was the first manufacturer to offer an OLED TV (the XEL-1), the low production yield meant that the price of OLED TVs was still sky high (the XEL-1 was only 11-inches but retailed for about $2,500). Reuters notes that if the agreement goes through, it would mark a watershed moment in Japanese consumer-electronics industry.
Source: Reuters