After recent reports of Panasonic and Sony abandoning OLED TV, the two companies might be returning to the OLED arena through a joint partnership with Japan Display, according to a Reuters report.
Japan Display, the world’s largest LCDs for smartphones and tablets manufacturer, plans to develop OLED panels through a joint venture with Panasonic and Sony, Reuters cited sources familiar with the matter.
The joint venture will probably have a higher survival rate than the failed OLED partnership between Panasonic and Sony in late December 2013. This will mostly be due to partial Japanese government support, as the joint venture will be owned by government-backed funded company Innovation Network Corp of Japan. The same company that “formed Japan Display from loss-making panel businesses at Sony, Hitachi and Toshiba,” according to Reuters.
Deployment of OLED display has lagged behind LCDs, even though OLEDs have higher resolution and use less power than LCDs. However, manufacturing costs still remain high, especially when applied in large screen televisions.
Japan Display has established a test line to manufacture OLED panels in a factory in northwestern Japan.
The three companies will each own a portion of the OLED ventures and would send engineers to work on the technology, said sources.
Parties involved aim to arrive to an agreement in June, but several issues remain to be solved, said sources. Officials from Sony, Panasonic and Japan Display have declined to comment.
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