ZDNET has put up a quick overview of what OLED’s are all about. OLED stands for Organic Light Emitting Diode. They’re going to start showing up in laptop and PDA screens and possibly in flat panel TV’s and light bulbs and the like over the next several years. To summarize the article, they have several strengths compared to existing flat panel systems – they’re easier to manufacture (and thus cheaper) use lots less power (where is my 8 hour life laptop!) and they are a lot brigher and have a more vivid picture which is also viewable from any angle, unlike the polarized screens in existing flat panel screens. The downside is their shorter lifespan and uneven degradation of picture quality (imagine a laptop where the red channel is faded and there’s nothing you can do about it). Despite this they’re going to start showing up in all kinds of devices. Kodak is already shipping a camera with one in it that i saw on Tech TV and the difference in quality is obvious, I could see it even on tv, they look excellent. Cross your fingers they deal with the lifespan issue and these things start showing up soon in retail, I want a $200 21″ flat screen monitor.