Organic light-emitting diodes represent the only display technology poised to meet all the requirements of the new standard, and the prize for winning the market will be significant. Even that figure may be conservative. In the third-generation marketplace, he predicts, the display will become the key differentiator between products. Manufactured by Pioneer of Japan and based on small-molecule technology licensed from Kodak, it has a passive matrix display that is somewhat limited in its ability to show colors. These are some of the first shots in the battle to dominate the third-generation market.
More firepower is on the way.
All this activity represents the first wave of what many insiders believe will be a revolution in displays for devices ranging from small-screen applications such as digital camera viewfinders to handheld computers and laptops. Paper thin, really beautiful. They put it next to an active matrix LCD, and it just blew the LCD away. Indeed, if the industry buzz is to be believed, organic light-emitting diodes hold the potential to blow away the entire economics of display making. One approach is to dramatically lower manufacturing costs by printing displays directly from an inkjet printer onto a substrate.