Say what you want about it (too expensive, too small etc.), but I’ve always liked the world’s first commercially available OLED TV, Sony’s XEL-1. It’s just an 11-inch screen and costs $2,200, but the picture quality is just gorgeous. Today, however, Sony announced they won’t produce and sell the device on the Japanese market anymore.

The company says a Japanese Internet law aimed at the protection of children [JP] requires them to integrate a “child protection function” for the display of websites into the device (TVs without said function can’t be sold in Japan starting April this year). Sony says they looked into integrating a web filter into the XEL-1 but finally decided against it.

The company will now sell the rest of the TVs it still has in stock and then stop distribution on the Japanese market. Sales in North America and Europe, however, will continue, according to Sony. The XEL-1 first went on sale in Japan in December 2007.

Via AV Watch [JP]