Sony is probably OLED's most vocal prophet as the TV of the future. But according to Nikkei, they're hedging their bets and getting more serious with another next-gen display tech: field emission display, which is a lot like a good ol' cathode ray tube, except that it's super thin—it has all the benefits too, like deep blacks and zero motion blur. A "dream panel" says Nikkei. Plus, they're easier to build at large sizes than OLED TVs. Sony just agreed to take over a plant run by Pioneer to begin mass production of FED panels in late 2009 after holding the tech at arm's length for years.

Sony's plans for FED displays are to push them to broadcasting and medical apps first, building slowly, rather than to jump right into the high-stakes plasma/LCD war, where nobody's making money thanks to the very bloody price war. Then it'll inch into the consumer market, first with 60-inch displays (at the level they can be more profitable, obviously). Looks like after plasma vs. LCD, we might have yet another fight on our hands: FED vs. OLED. [Nikkei]

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