OLED - Thin is in

The proliferation of LED and Plasma raised the bar on quality consumer displays. No longer do we have to rely on bulky CRT displays that occupy an entire desk. Instead, many are vying for sleek, minimalist LCDs for our computers or large, flat, wall-mounted Plasmas for home entertainment. Surprisingly though, a new emerging technology is changing what thin means when it comes to displays. This new technology called Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLED) allows displays to be as thin and as flexible as paper. 

The applications of OLED are endless. Portable and wearable displays, televisions, military applications and advertising are just some of the ways that OLED can be used. It's lightweight, flexible more energy efficient. Most of all, it is theoretically cheaper and easier to produce. For many major consumer electronics producers, this is the next major step in display technology. 

Despite already being popular in current versions of cell phones, PDAs and MP3 playeres, here are some potential future uses of OLED:

Key Changing Keyboard

Invisible Displays

Light Source

In Relation to Porter's Five Forces:

To relate OLED with Porter's Five Forces, it is best to choose an industry which is anticipated to use OLED in a major way. This industry is the consumer electronics industry, more specifically the Television Market

Threat of Substitute Products

OLED technology has been around for a few years, but only recently have companies shown prototypes of OLED televisions. By the time it is released to the market, these televisions are predicted to initially be more expensive than current technologies such as LCD and Plasma screens. As well, LCD and Plasma screen prices are significantly decreasing, which might deter the regular consumer from buying an OLED TV when it comes out.

The price advantage of these alternative flat screens have over OLED screens, though, are temporary. Performance wise, an OLED screen is far superior. It produces a greater quality image with a 1000000/1 contrast ratio as compared to LCD's 1000/1; it's image is not distorted based on the angle it is viewed; is more lightweight and flexible; and is more energy efficient since it does not require a backlight to illuminate the screen. The high initial price of OLED is also congruent with any new technology. It's price will decrease once economies of scale are achieved. 

The Bargaining Power of Suppliers

A major manufacturing advantage of OLED Televisions is that it requires less parts to assemble. This greatly decreases a manufacturer's dependence on its suppliers. As previously mentioned, OLED doesn't require backlighting, therefore, a dependence on companies such as Tsujiden, Keiwa and Kimoto, which have an oligopoly on LCD panel backlighting. This will be a major advantage for OLED TV producers. 

Other manufacturers have also mentioned that OLED are simpler to manufacture in general than LCD and Plasma. Cnet.com mentions that OLEDs will be cheaper to produce than traditional LCDs up to 60%, and that there will be a “definite cost advantage in making an OLED (TV)”.

With its major advantages, OLED will make waves in the consumer electronics industry. In the future, the use of this technology will be expanded to all other uses of a portable display device. Any company in this industry should definitely consider the production of OLEDs if they choose to stay ahead of the game.

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Sources:
OLED-Info
http://www.oled-info.com/

Still Waiting for OLED TVs
http://www.news.com/2100-1041-6203556.html?tag=tb

Gizmodo
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/oled/

AJAX - It's the Way to Go

Web 2.0 is a progressing idea of what the evolution of the internet should be. Interactivity, dynamism, and user generated content are the hallmarks of Web 2.0. For web programmers, they have grasped this idea and have created exciting and dynamic content. However, if such goals are set for the internet, shouldn't the technology to create these websites evolve along with it? Many have taken Web 2.0 to heart, but have based them on the same technologies as older, static websites. It is very common for us to experiencetrying to uploading multiple photos, but have given up in frustration because the page has to slowly refresh multiple times.

Of course, some web programmers have already realized this, and have created AJAX. AJAX stands for Asynchronous Javascript and XML, and is best described as a combination of Javascript and XML techniques that have been design and implemented to create the ideal Web 2.0 experience. The following video explains it more clearly.

A web-page that no longer needs refreshing is the main benefit of AJAX. This might seem like a simple and trivial advantage, but this emerging technology will have multiple benefits. For a more personal example, McGill Professors and Students would have less frustrations about WebCT if it was AJAX based, instead of obsolete the framesets it uses. In the web, speed is key, and sites that needs less refreshing have a definite competitive advantage.

In relation to Porter's Five Forces:

Competitive Rivalry within an Industry

With the ease of creating a website nowadays, competition over visitors is intense. Countless websites compete in this saturated environment to get the most visitors possible; the simplest, the fastest and the most user friendly always come out on top. Many of these top websites have started implementing AJAX, which differentiates them from the intense competition.

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On January 15, 2008 theilife.com won over multiple Apple fans when it decided to host a live blog of Steve Jobs' Macworld 2008 keynote speech. This was just one of hundreds of live blogs for the event, but this site became one of the most visited live blogs for the event. It beat out other website giants such as cnet.com because users never had to refresh their browsers to get a new update. On the other hand, cnet required constant refreshing which crashed the page and lost its visitors.

Threat of New Entrants

The competitive advantage of early AJAX adopters, though, is only short lived. Being such a simple technique to implement, it is most likely that a majority of web developers will be switching to an AJAX framework very soon. There is definitely a high threat of new entrants for AJAX users and so they will have to use AJAX in creative ways to improve their websites.

The good news is that AJAX has so many ways to be implemented in different situations that each website has the opportunity to use it to differentiate themselves from others despite the fact that they all rely on AJAX.

The concept of AJAX has been around for a few years, but has only started becoming popular within the last few months. Now, major websites such as Google and Blogspot are adapting this framework and it's evident in their performance that AJAX is the way to go.

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Sources:

AJAX: A New Approach to Web Applications

http://www.adaptivepath.com/ideas/essays/archives/000385.php

AJAX: Getting Started

http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/AJAX:Getting_Started

AJAX.org

http://www.ajax.org