Citing an increasing demand for LCDs alongside the impact of the recent economic recession, Toshiba says its OLED mass production plans are no more. "The plan (for mass-production) is currently frozen," Toshiba Mobile Display spokesman Masahiro Kume told Reuters. "We'll review the production plan again from scratch." It would appear that the company is cutting its losses, which doesn't bode well for the OLED technology.
Toshiba Mobile Display, a joint venture between Toshiba and Panasonic, had invested some 16 billion yen ($191.6 million) in 2008 for an OLED production line at its plant in Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan. The plan was to churn out 1.5 million OLEDs for smartphones a month, but that won't happen anymore. Toshiba Mobile Display will instead focus on LCD panels until further notice: staff involved in the production and R&D of OLED will be transferred to the LCD panel division, unless they were working on lighting equipment, in which case they remain under OLED.