Smaller. Faster. Cheaper. That’s how electronics technology develops - right? Or has it reached a stage when it is not that simple.
A decade ago, the organic light-emitting diode (OLED) seemed to be the ultimate display technology. Unlike the liquid-crystal display (LCD), which has to filter photons from a backlight through a layer of polarised colour filters, the OLED delivers more vivid images. In principle, it should consign the LCD to the same fate that greeted the earlier, bulky cathode-ray tube monitor: bit parts in retro-futurist TV shows such as Severance.
The OLED has not fared as well as expected. Its carbon-based materials degrade in the atmosphere if the display’s seal is broken. And picture quality suffers from the same kind of long-term burn-out that afflicted older TVs when they held the same image for too long. The other selling point of the OLED – its printing-like manufacturing process – is not delivering cheaper products. And the problem gets worse for larger, TV-size...