Organic Light-Emitting Diodes (OLED) are a potential new flat HDTV technology, championed primarily by Sony and Samsung. While tiny in size and expensive at the checkout, OLED has an amazing picture and is sure to be developed more in the years to come as HDTVs get thinner, brighter and less expensive.

OLED is any Light Emitting Diode (LED) with an emissive electroluminescent layer that is composed of a film of organic compounds. The layer has a polymer material that allows organic compounds to be deposited in rows and columns onto a flat carrier by a simple "printing" process. The resulting matrix of pixels can emit light of different colors. OLED takes advantage of the green marketing movement and will be increasingly popular with consumers as it develops.

Because of the global financialocalypse, and the rapidly decreasing overall price in plasma and LCD TVs, OLED displays are still many years away. However, they have started to find a niche in the person digital device market, with many smartphones featuring an OLED display.

See a preview of Sony's "Rollable" OLED.

Learn about Toshiba's buyout of Panasonic's OLED business.

Check out Sony's OLED Walkman.