New reports from Nikkei (subscription required) and Reuters suggests that Sony may be looking to partner up with Panasonic to build the technology required to produced “next-generation” OLED TVs to compete with Samsung and LG.
This doesn’t appear to be a done deal, however. Both reports indicate that talks between Sony and Panasonic to produce OLED panels are in the very early stages, meaning that it’s still possible that one or both sides could come to a disagreement and end the deal.
Naturally, neither Sony nor Panasonic were willing to confirm or deny the possible partnership between the two rivals. Kyoko Ishii, Panasonic’s senior coordinator of global PR, told Reuters:
“The content of the report is not announced by Panasonic. Panasonic will continue its development and verification of OLED based on the result of research the company has been doing at its laboratories. The timing of the commercialization of OLED has not been decided yet.”
Both companies haven’t exactly been performing very well if their financial results are any indication, so a partnership between Sony and Panasonic to produce OLED TVs certainly makes sense. That said, we’ll likely have a long wait before we find out if there’s any truth to these reports.
[Image credit: Itsuo Inouye/AP Photo]
