OLED stands for "organic light-emitting diode". While I don't have a clue what that really means, I do know that it uses less electricity than any computer or TV monitor technology previously introduced. To fully understand the significance of this particular evolution of technology, we need to understand how it all started. By examining the past, we can get an idea of how long it will take for OLED to completely replace the other technologies.
The CRT (Cathode Ray Tube)
The CRT was invented in 1897 and was used for terminal displays before being made available to consumers in the form of black and white TVs. I'm a little fuzzy on all the dates, but most consumers were getting them in the 1950s, with color TV becoming affordable in the 1970s.
When home computers first started becoming popular in the 1980s, they were designed to work with either color TVs or color monitors. The monitors were simply CRT displays without TV tuners and with connections designed for computer usage.
The Plasma TV
I don't even want to entertain the history of them. Even though large-screen flat-panel plasma TVs became available to consumers in the late 1990s (and are still sold today), they consume more electricity than CRT monitors and are NOT environmentally friendly.
The LCD (Liquid Crystal Display)
Smart people invented the color LCD TVs and computer monitors. LCD has been around for a long time, since I was a teenager in the 1970s. LCD monitors and TVs took off in sales in 2005 or 2006 and I was around to see it happening. CRT monitors were being replaced as fast as companies could afford to replace them.
Besides being as thin as plasma TVs, LCD monitors use less electricity than either one. LCD TV sales have been brisk. I own nothing but LCD monitors and TVs right now, but I'm looking forward to the next generation.
The OLED (Organic Light-Emitted Diode)
Very recently introduced by Sony on one model that I'm aware of, OLED is slated to be the next big thing. There are a lot of advantages of OLED over LCD, one of them being the fact that no backlight is required. For this reason, OLED monitors are even thinner than LCD monitors.
Other companies, like Samsung, are jumping in the mix as fast as they can. Although OLED has been around since 2004, it has taken this long for the companies to start using it in TVs and monitors due to all of the LCD versions in the global inventory. Financially, it makes sense to wait until your previous inventories are near-exhausted or you'll lose out.
What can be predicted?
I've only touched on the history and the future of computers and TV monitors. People are still using CRT computer monitors and TVs even though LCD has been out for a few years. Those kinds of monitors, if you can still find them in stores, can be had for dirt-cheap prices. CRT TVs are still being sold, but I can't say how many and where (other than here in the Philippines, where they still outnumber LCD 3 to 1).
OLED is the future (unless E Ink becomes a contender after developing color), but LCD is going to be here for many years to come. I'm predicting there will still be CRT TVs, LCD TVs, and OLED TVs in homes (not all in each one, of course) another 20 years from now. That's provided we make it past the apocalypse of 2012 — sorry, I just had to throw that in.
Similar Articles:
- Were you Born before or after Star Wars?
- Wireless Electricity – It's About Time!
- LCD TVs and the Good Qualities of the Liquid Crystal Display
- How often do you Upgrade your Computing Devices?
- Movie, Music and Software Piracy – Say hello to Pandora for me, will you?
This article is published as: The Future for Computer and TV Monitors is OLED
I wonder how OLED compares to Samsungs new LED TV's which uses LED (light emitting diodes) said to be 70% slimmer and consume less than 40% of the power consumed by conventional LCD TVs.
.-= My last blog: Movies, Sports, Music And More On Your PC =-.
The technology is almost the same. LED is inorganic while OLED is organic, yet both are LED. The amount of electricity saved should be about the same.
Hehe … dude … the Samsung LED is just about backlight, they have no LED display … it`s still LCD. Wtf are u talking about. The O-LED tech is a diferent matter … it uses molecules that light up and are the display of the screen … not some backlight. Just for comparison … the AMO-LED of Samsung Galaxy S2 is the small size of what TV will have incorporated but it`s still WAYYY to expensive. If u pay for a phone with a display as big as your palm 500-1000 euro … imagine what would that mean for a TV with 100 times that display.
I`ve seen this a lot … ppl having no clue what they are discussing but still have contradictory oppinions.
Read some tech reviews about led/lcd displays and then comment on them.
The OLED is very different from the new LED Tvs which use individual, segmented LED backlight panels. The OLED will generate per-pixel light which means many magnitudes larger contrast ratio (difference between full bright and as dark as it can get). LCDs actually consume most power when generating a black screen because the LCD is actively blocking the backlight. The contrast is low because no matter how hard it tries, light slips through. The OLED will simply not turn on. Pure black. Bright whites. It's revolutionary. I'm a photographer and I can't wait to get my hands of a 30" OLED display for my workstation…
The new Samsung LED TVs are amazing, the picture clarity is incredible. One of the models is only 29.9mm thick too! It's a great technology.
I remember the first OLED TV from Sony, I saw it in Japan, it must have only been 11" or something like that but the picture was truly immense, the colours were so vibrant completely different from LCD and Plasma technology, would OLED be compatible with the new polarised 3D technologies though?
.-= My last blog: Plasma TV Stand =-.
Wow, this is really interesting. Does anyone know if they're going to make roof mount monitors in OLED?
Roof Mount Monitor recently posted..The Number 1 Roof Mount Monitor As Voted By The People