Sony reportedly shelving OLED TVs in favor of 4K LCDs

Himanshu Arora

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Update: Sony has come out to deny reports that it is ditching OLED development in favor of 4K LCD. The company says no such change of focus has been confirmed, and that it continues to investigate improving OLED TV production in order to ensure the technology's consumer future.

Looking forward to an OLED TV from Sony? You might want to reconsider as the company is stopping all of its development around commercial OLED TVs in order to concentrate on cheaper 4K Ultra HD products, which use more traditional liquid crystal displays, according to Nikkei.

Sony was first to throw its hat in the OLED TV ring, launching its first unit back in 2008. Since then, many other manufacturers have shown interest in the technology but high manufacturing costs and lifespan issues have resulted in only a small number of OLED products actually hitting the market.

On the other hand, 4K LCD sets are not only less expensive but also simpler to produce. Coupled with the fact that the company enjoys an industry-leading share of the global market for 4K TVs, accounting for over 20 percent of the total value of global shipments, the move makes perfect sense for Sony.

As per the report, the 4K models will constitute around 40-50 percent of Sony's total lineup this year.

However, the change does come at a cost for the company, which plans to trim the workforce on its consumer electronics division by 20 percent. Sony will also reassign the people now working to develop OLED TVs to other tasks, including development of 4K-related products, the report says.

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Good decision. They should learn first how to make OLED cheaply and reliably, and then come back. In the meantime, we will take the LCD-s.

Hopefully, we will finally see some quality cheap 4K LCD monitors this year, and not some TN-based compromise that's out there right now.
 
I hate to say it, but as I see it, the only reason that Sony is making this decision is that it allows them to cut 20% of their workforce. Ever since Sony had a western educated CEO, their innovation has virtually disappeared. In 3-years when OLED is the display technology, Sony will be scrambling to catch up, once again.

IMHO, Sony is no longer the world leader they once were, and they are far too interested in the monthly bottom line.

I am also willing to bet that in part, this decision is based on the fact that LG is currently leading the OLED charge with a cheaper and easier to manufacture OLED technology.
 
Yet people will continue to be conned into thinking they are buying LED screens, as they will be falsely marketed as such, like they have since oled was first announced.
 
It seem Sony withdraw from the OLED competition against Samsung and LG here, instead they are trying to make an affordable 4K display.. smart move, since most of people would go buy an affordable product.
 
Good decision. They should learn first how to make OLED cheaply and reliably, and then come back. In the meantime, we will take the LCD-s.

Hopefully, we will finally see some quality cheap 4K LCD monitors this year, and not some TN-based compromise that's out there right now.
Yeah the technology has to improve first. 4K is where it is at currently.
 
Good, cmon progress give me a cheap 4k 90" TV.
You and me both! I can't wait for the prices to drop on displays over 70+ inches. And I understand that we'll need much larger displays to appreciate the smaller pixels on 4K TV's, so 90" television sets would be a very nice place for this price breakthrough to begin.
 
From a business point of view this makes perfect sense. They're clearly, IMO doing this for future profits. Think about it. What is going to be the new best thing about TV's? 4K screens! More pixels? Oh yes. Clearer picture? Damn straight! More betterer? Quite indeed good sir.

This is sad to me because I'd love to see someone make a beautiful screen thats 1080p rather than a subpar or average screen thats 4k. Really who needs 4k on a 60" tv? At least right now. Are you going to connect your pc to game on it? No. Is Netflix going to stream it to millions of people? They'd never have the bandwidth, even with H265 I think.
 
While I understand why they are making the switch I would prefer for them to continue working on OLED. It will do more for picture quality than 4k which basically has no content they barely broadcast 1080p so unless you plan on rebuying your whole collection of blue rays to get 4k blue rays.

As for lcd\led no thanks.

I will stick to my plasma!
 
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