Toshiba Throws in the Towel on OLED TVs

CES is still a few weeks away, but it's becoming clearer that what we won't be seeing much of is OLED-based televisions: Toshiba is canceling plans to build large OLED displays, citing high costs.

Existing OLED TVs are both small and expensive, not exactly the perfect combination for the television buyer.

OLED, or organic LED, technology has been in the works for years. Because it requires no backlight, it's long been touted as an exceptionally green way to build display technology. Early problems with OLEDs rapidly dimming (much like early plasma displays) have already been solved...

But the cost concerns have not. Sony's 11-inch OLED display (pictured), which it builds a mere 2,000 of each month, costs $1,774, or about the price of a 46-inch LCD TV. Toshiba had been working on a 30-inch display, now relatively modest in size in the world of oversized television sets.

Sony and Samsung (and others) continue to press on with OLED technology, but Toshiba's abandonment of the market can't be seen as anything other than an ominous bellwether for the tech, at least for the rest of this decade. Stay tuned for our CES coverage to see if anyone else has moved along with OLED TV tech.

LINK: Citing high cost, Toshiba shelves plans for OLED televisions

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