We mentioned this earlier last month, however it has now been officially announced and confirmed that Japanese technology firms, Sony and Panasonic, have signed a formal agreement to share OLED production technology, with the hopes of bringing us mass production in 2013.
The firms stated that this agreement will be ongoing and that from now on, the two companies will jointly develop and evolve OLED technology. Alas, our earlier wild speculation of a 'PanaSony' brand has been quashed, as the announcement confirms that the two groups will be developing and marketing their own unique brands, with no further standardisation beyond the panel technology.
It's not quite clear just what Panasonic is gaining from Sony in this deal, however it's clear from the details that Sony is to make use of Panasonic's unique 'all printing method' that allows for cost-effective production, even on large scale displays; something which the firm requires, as whatever methods it has used in the past, it has only ever produced mobile-class OLED displays, which are a far cry from the living-room HDTV.
This deal should help the two pedigree Japanese firms keep their claws firmly in the market that Korean companies such as Samsung and LG are attempting push them out from. This should hopefully heat-up OLED competition next year and, with any luck, we may see OLED prices fall faster that Samsung's predicated mainstream date of 2015.
