Canon Postpones SED… Again

As reported on our sister news and information Website, Canon and Toshiba have postponed the launch of flat-panel SED TVs…again. This is, to my knowledge, the third delay thus far.

I’m starting to wonder if this technology really exists, or if it's just a figment of my imagination. Had it not been for the fact that the editors of our two publications both got a sneak peek at SED during the 2005 International Consumer Electronics Show, I’d have stuck to my guns on the latter. For what it’s worth, they both described it as being “flat-out beautiful, with blacker blacks, great shadow detail, and more brilliant whites.” (Take into consideration, of course, that both plasma and LCD technology have improved tremendously over the past two years, so the differences might not be so pronounced today as they were back then).

Why the holdup? Canon cites prolonged litigation as one of the reasons. In January 2007, the firm that licensed SED technology to Canon (Nano-Proprietary Inc.) filed suit against the company, crying breach of contract, stating that Canon’s partnership with Toshiba was not part of the original agreement. As a result, Canon set forth to purchase all the outstanding share of SED Inc., and shifted around some employees to accommodate the change.

A second reason cited for the delay is “efforts to establish mass-production technology aimed at realizing further cost reductions.” Translation: the prices of flat-panel TVs are dropping so much, so fast, that now the company has to find a better, cheaper way to mass produce the sets.

Will we ever see this technology come to fruition? Who knows. But we’ve been on the edge of our seats for SED for so long, it would be nice to see something come of it.