Digital Trends

Reports indicate that Korean manufacturer LG has set its OLED sights on the long term, with a plan for big panels, but arriving in the distant future.

In the just-blossoming world of OLED TVs, the wait for new devices and their respective sizes have a seesawing relationship: the bigger the set, the longer the wait. When it comes to the latest news slipping out of LG, size is not an issue – but you’ll probably be drooling over the next hot technology by the time they drop. According to a report by Taiwanese paper DigiTimes, LG expects to begin wide-scale production of its 32-inch OLED displays in 2011.

Currently, the only commercially available OLED set is Sony’s XEL-1, which sells for $2,499 and has a screen size of only 11 inches. Sony has kept mum on future plans for larger sets, but Samsung stepped up on Tuesday to announce its own intention to produce commercially available OLED sets by 2009, which it hopes to accomplish by ramping up production numbers to cut cost. The company did not, however, make any size promises, leaving LG as the only company with a commitment to commercial big-screen panels.

If 2011 sounds a little distant, LG also has plans to being producing its eight-generation LCD panels by March 2009 at its plant in Paju, Korea. The company hopes to beat Taiwanese rivals by two to three quarters with its aggressive schedule, producing panels in 32-, 47-, 52- and 57-inch sizes.