CES 2009 helped mark a number of upcoming technological trends that have either already reached the market or are about to do so in the next 12 months. Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLED) display technology made an impact at CES 2009.

Despite CES 2009 Sony did not bring forward anything larger than their existing 27"-31" OLED prototypes already on display at CES 2008, Samsung showcased a 50" OLED prototype prior to CES. But they did show smaller OLED displays at their 2009 CES booth. The smaller OLED displays are already available on the market or set to launch later this year.

Sony prototype flexible OLED display
Sony 2" flexible OLED prototype could mark the future of this very exciting technology where thin, light, power efficient, and high performance OLEDs will become flexible, allowing for the first time new bendable color displays for applications such as mobile media players, electronic books, and even bendable computers. Although very exciting, Sony is expecting any consumer based bendable OLED products within the next 12 months.

LG 15" super thin OLED display
A very exciting product which supposedly should launch by the end of 2009 was on display on LG's booth. LG’s 15" OLED monitor (actually AMOLED) is only 0.8mm thick making it the thinnest display on display at CES 2009. No pricing was released, but it’s expected that the price is significantly less than Sony's existing $2000 11" OLED display.

Kodak was showcasing its magnificent 7.6" OLED wireless picture frame, which actually looked much better on the Microsoft booth, probably due to the more eye catching content which was fed into it. Although the unit price has dropped to around $850 since it was launched just a couple of months ago, it's still a premium product and it is expected that OLEDs of similar size to stay this way for at least another 12-18 months.

The only area where OLEDs are already relatively widespread today is ultra small displays (2.5"- 3" range). In the last several months many companies in various areas have incorporated this technology into their products, including portable media players, cameras, cell phones, and even internet radios. This trend is only going to expand in 2009 and as prices go down, more and more OLED based portable products will specifically benefit from the technology’s ultra low power consumption.