Las Vegas, United States

Sony announced at CES today that its 11-inch OLED television will go on sale today in the USA through Sony Style stores for around $2,500.

Sony first launched the 11-inch XEL-1 OLED (organic light emitting diode) television in Japan late last year.

According to Sony CEO, Howard Stringer, the screen’s thickness is equivalent to three credit cards at just 3mm.

The incredibly thin design is possible due to the display’s lack of an internal backlight, said Stringer. The 11-inch version offers a claimed 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio.

“This really reinforces our ability to lead the industry… we are the only company already selling this technology,” he said.

Sony also displayed a 27-inch prototype at its CES stand today as well.

Earlier, Sharp panned OLED display technology and said it would persist with LCD due to ongoing reliability problems with the new format.

Sharp USA president Michael Troetti said while the company was exploring OLED, two issues remained:

“Firstly, the current lifespan of OLED is three to four years and we believe that it has to be around 10 years to be used as a television. Also, it is still difficult to manufacture in large screens sizes,” he said.

Sharp also suggested that all the major compoents of LCD televisions including screens and filters had room for improvement in forthcoming generations.

Sony’s stand at CES also played host to another future technology – 4K resolution. With four times the onscreen resolution of 1080p, Sony’s prototype 4K Bravia television can display a higher-than-high-definition image across its massive span or allow the user to watch four 1080p full HD sources simultaneously. The technology, first developed by Japanese national broadcaster NHK, made its debut at the Aichi Expo in 2005.

“This is something for the future which we are currently exploring and researching it now,” said a Sony USA executive during the press conference.

“There is no timeframe for its release yet.”

Digital Retailer understands that Samsung will preview a 31-inch OLED television on its stand at the CES on Monday, local time. Although the OLED TV was not discussed at the company’s press conference held earlier today, the 31-inch panel would be the largest screen of its size in this new emerging format and would confirm the technology as the new flat panel contender.