Hi, Sidney. The Japanese love their Carp, don't they?
I can't fault Kodak for getting into OLEDs, but when I see something like this,
siliconinvestor.com
I wonder why Kodak wants to follow their erstwhile 'Nifty Fifty' buddy and long-time favorite of the PC crowd:
quote.yahoo.com ?
Polaroid is (was) a "classic example" of how not to leverage intellectual property. The guy who developed most of that property reinvented the company several times; he was followed by guys who didn't invent and therefore couldn't reinvent, but paradoxically had a strong 'NIH' mentality.
Kodak may get kudos from the PC crowd, but their stock has made no net progress in fifteen years (to be fair, they've paid some dividends). If they want to leverage their intellectual property, they need to hire the people most capable of doing that, period. That recent press release is not a good sign, imo. If I had to choose between EK and SANYY, I'd take Sanyo, but neither one is close to a pure play on OLEDs.
OLEDs are "brighter, thinner and more colorful than LCDs, provide an unlimited viewing angle and consume less power," but they are at a disadvantage in cost, lifetime and speed. However, OLEDs are improving rapidly and if they continue to advance in these areas relative to LCDs, they'll be competitive in more and more markets over time. Undoubtedly they will cross over at some point on cost; that has been seen as a potential advantage of OLEDs from the start. Lifetime and speed will depend on how things go in the R&D department, but given the amount of money now being poured into this, you can expect big advances there as well.
Kodak lists "cameras, PDAs, and portable entertainment machines" as targeted consumer devices. For these, manufacturers would like to bring more information to the viewer, especially as higher bandwidth becomes available. However, neither LCDs nor OLEDs can make a small screen big. Microdisplays are required for that; although most of them incorporate LCs, they are really another class of competitor for those same applications.
Will |
