PC World reported this week on the new television offerings being touted at this year’s CEATEC electronics show in Japan.  It seems that bigger and bigger flat-screen televisions are no longer the target goal of the big manufacturers. The focus now is on making existing flat-panel screens as thin as possible.

Sony’s release of the first OLED (organic light-emitting diode) television seems to be the leader in the thin race.  The television is just 3 millimeters thick, possible because LED technology does not require a backlight in order to illuminate. The Sony OLED will be available in December 2007 to Japan residents only. Hitachi, Sharp and JVC are all showing prototypes of thinner LCD televisions at the show this week.  Televisions attracting the most attention are those large screens (32”, 42” and the like) that are slimmer and sleeker than the same sizes currently on the market. Televisions nearing the 70-inch sizes have less of an audience, probably because the market for such sizes is so small.

Most of the products showing at the event won’t be available for 1-2 years, plenty of time for the big companies to clean-up and perfect the technology that makes the televisions thinner, and therefore a less intrusive element in a home theater.