Japan pumps $350 million into the development of 40-inch OLED TVs

Serkan Toto

Dr. Serkan Toto is an independent consultant and advisor focusing on Japan’s web, mobile and social gaming industries. Based in Tokyo, he works together with financial institutions and startups worldwide. Serkan has been the Japan contributor for TechCrunch.com since 2008. He is sept-lingual, holds an MBA and is a PhD in economics. → Learn More

Thursday, July 10th, 2008

Today Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization announced it wants to accelerate the commercialization of large-screen OLED-TVs with a $350 million investment to be spent over 5 years.

The public organization plans to cooperate with the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology and a total of 10 Japanese technology companies. These are:

- Hitachi Zosen
- Sony
- Sharp
- Shimadzu
- Toshiba Matsushita Display Technology
- Idemitsu Kosan
- Choshu Industry [JP]
- Sumitomo Chemical
- JSR
- Dainippon Screen

According to Japanese media, the initiative’s goal is to commercialize 40-inch OLED-TVs by 2018. This seems to be surprisingly late, as Samsung showcased a prototype of such a TV as early as 2005.

Sony plans to sell FED-TVs sized at 26 inches through an affiliate company starting next year. The company’s current OLED-TV, the XEL-1, comes with a screen size of 11 inches.

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