Panasonic and Sony join forces for OLED

With the big Japanese brands finding it apparently ever harder to compete with their main Korean rivals, we’re pleased – if surprised – to learn that Panasonic and Sony are going to work together on developing OLED panels for the consumer market.

Sony once led the way with OLED, but had apparently pretty much given up on being able to make the technology affordable enough to become a consumer proposition. But now, with LG and Samsung both intending to launch OLED TVs into the consumer space this year, the Japanese brands have clearly been forced to rethink their TV strategy. Leading to this announcement of a cooperation between them.

Sony OLED TV: We can expect the brand’s next OLED models to be bigger and better value than its 11in 2008 debut.

While it’s likely this deal will have been quite painful to reach for both brands, it’s a clear sign so far as we’re concerned that the big Japanese players are starting to approach the changing AV landscape in the much more pragmatic way they need to if they’re to continue being as competitive as we – and surely any serious AV fan – would want them to be.

The only catch is that predictably the new joint venture isn’t likely to yield any actual products until 2013, giving LG and Samsung a substantial head start in this potentially critical (in the long term) new TV market. So hopefully Panasonic and Sony’s first screens next year will hit the ground running.