Despite the current state of the economy, Panasonic has confirmed that it will release an OLED TV within 2 years.

According to smarthouse.com.au Panasonic figures that they can do a better job than Sony and produce a Panasonic OLED TV with a 37″ screen and a lifespan of up to 50,000 hours.

These new Panasonic OLED TVs are to be built at the IPS Alpha factory and may be produced in a partnership with Toshiba.

There seems to be more positive OLED TV news the past few weeks. Can’t wait to see one of the larger sized OLEDs in the stores.

Some not so great comments on OLED TV technology from Panasonic at CEATEC 2008:

CHIBA, Japan–Already skeptical about the ability of OLED to uproot the TV technology dominance of plasma and LCD in the next few years, Panasonic cast even more doubt on the opening day of Ceatec 2008.

Speaking to a group of reporters, Panasonic AVC Networks President Toshihiro Sakamoto reiterated that OLED (organic light-emitting diode) TVs will not be made in sizes of 30 inches or greater for now, and it’s still not suitable for mass manufacturing. Currently, Panasonic does not have an OLED product on the market, but Sony does: it makes and 11-inch OLED TV, and is working on a 27-inch model.

Though Panasonic is working on making its own OLED set, Sakamoto said “we may have to redefine the market position of OLED.”

Full story at: cnet.com

Despite the widely spread news of a Panasonic OLED TV last week, Matsushita has confirmed that 2011 is not a set date for release of a large OLED TV.

From Tech On

Some media sources reported June 24, 2008, that Matsushita Electric Industrial Co Ltd are making final adjustments to start volume production of a 37-inch OLED TV in fiscal 2011.

Matsushita responded to our interview and commented on 14:00, June 24, on the news, saying, “We are currently advancing research and development in view of OLED production at IPS Alpha’s Himeji Plant for the future, but nothing specific has yet been decided on the commercialization of our OLED TV at the moment.”

According to some reports, Matsushita is planning to mass-produce OLED panels on the new lines to be installed and dedicated to OLED panel production at the Mobara and Himeji plants (which is slated to begin operating in January 2010) of its subsidiary IPS Alpha Technology Ltd and assemble them into TVs at its plants both inside and outside Japan.

It has been reported that Matsushita will take six 37-inch OLED panels from a sixth-generation glass substrate at Mobara Plant, while taking 10 panels from an eighth-generation glass substrate at Himeji Plant.

Matsushita feels that the era of the OLED TV is fast approaching. At its management policy meeting in January 2008, President Fumio Otsubo said, “Large OLED TVs will start replacing the existing TVs from about 2015, I expect.”