你見過(guò)最新的數(shù)字顯示屏嗎？當(dāng)然。你曾伸著脖子看著智能手機(jī)，瀏覽著車載娛樂(lè)系統(tǒng)，也曾對(duì)著大屏電視機(jī)打過(guò)哈欠。實(shí)際上，你甚至害怕有人看到你iPhone上的Screen Time應(yīng)用給出的驚人的統(tǒng)計(jì)數(shù)據(jù)。（每天花在回應(yīng)大家庭的社交媒體郵件的時(shí)間：超出平均水平兩小時(shí)。）

沒(méi)錯(cuò)，你對(duì)這些發(fā)光屏幕的熱情仿佛一種原始的欲望，就像飛蛾一樣。不過(guò)你是否真正看過(guò)近來(lái)的最新產(chǎn)品？它們……變得比以往更好了。線條更明晰，顏色更鮮艷，而墨水般的漆黑讓你沉醉。它們看起來(lái)和你的那些老款設(shè)備的屏幕有些不同。那是因?yàn)橐豁?xiàng)被稱作OLED的技術(shù)。

OLED指的是有機(jī)發(fā)光二極管（organic light-emitting diode），它與過(guò)去十年里占據(jù)主導(dǎo)地位的顯示屏技術(shù)LED和LCD在簡(jiǎn)稱的字母上可能有些相似，不過(guò)實(shí)質(zhì)上卻有根本性的不同。LG電子（LG Electronics）美國(guó)區(qū)的發(fā)言人約翰·泰勒表示：“OLED發(fā)出的是自己的光，因此在像素質(zhì)量上具有明顯優(yōu)勢(shì)。每個(gè)像素都可以單獨(dú)控制，這意味著它能創(chuàng)造出完美的黑階，這是優(yōu)秀影像中最重要的元素?！?/p>

OLED的價(jià)格也高得多。它統(tǒng)治了手機(jī)[（三星（Samsung）售價(jià)720美元的Galaxy S9]、電視（LG售價(jià)2,000美元的C8）等高端市場(chǎng)。最重要的是，只有少數(shù)企業(yè)[包括三星、LG和索尼（Sony）]控制著它有限的產(chǎn)出。

市場(chǎng)研究公司IHS的顯示屏技術(shù)研究主管杰瑞·康在首爾表示：“幾乎每家公司都在努力投資與三星競(jìng)爭(zhēng)，剩下那些公司則試圖快速效仿?！?/p>

IHS認(rèn)為，全球OLED市場(chǎng)的銷售額將會(huì)從今年的約260億美元增長(zhǎng)到2022年的375億美元，其主要驅(qū)動(dòng)因素在于移動(dòng)設(shè)備。誰(shuí)是贏家則取決于設(shè)備：三星為全球排名前二的手機(jī)制造商[它本身和蘋果（Apple）]提供OLED屏幕，而早期不采用OLED的決定無(wú)意間讓公司把高端電視市場(chǎng)拱手讓給了LG和索尼。根據(jù)IHS的數(shù)據(jù)，后兩者的電視銷售額都占據(jù)了全球總銷售額的三分之一以上。（三星顯示器公司的發(fā)言人表示：“我們堅(jiān)定認(rèn)為，可以利用我們的OLED顯示屏繼續(xù)開拓這個(gè)充滿可能性的世界?！辈⒀a(bǔ)充稱三星早在18年前就開始了這項(xiàng)技術(shù)的研發(fā)投資。）

隨著OLED的價(jià)格繼續(xù)攀升，曾經(jīng)高檔的創(chuàng)新成為主流，整個(gè)世界都為之激動(dòng)，而冬天的假日購(gòu)物季也恰好即將來(lái)臨。LG的泰勒表示：“它仍然屬于新興技術(shù)，我們不會(huì)松開油門?！保ㄘ?cái)富中文網(wǎng)）

本文的另一個(gè)版本登載于《財(cái)富》雜志2018年11月1日刊，標(biāo)題為“Black And Blue All Over”。

譯者：嚴(yán)匡正

LOOK AT ANY DIGITAL DISPLAYS LATELY? Of course you have. You’ve craned your neck over a smartphone, glanced at a car’s entertainment system, and gaped at a big-screen TV. Deep down, you’re horrified that someone might see the telling totals calculated by the Screen Time app on your iPhone. (Time spent responding to political social media posts by your extended family: two hours above average.)

Sure, your attraction to glowing panels of light is a little animalistic, a bit moth-like. But have you actually looked at them lately? They’re just … better than they used to be. Lines are crisp, colors pop, and you get lost in their inky blackness. They look different from the displays on your old devices. That’s because of a technology called OLED.

OLED—which stands for organic light-emitting diode—may share a few letters with LED and LCD, the predominant display technologies of the past decade. But it’s fundamentally different. “OLED emits its own light, and that really offers distinct advantages when it comes to pixel quality,” says LG Electronics USA spokesman John Taylor. “Every pixel can be individually controlled, so that means it can create perfect black levels—the most important element to a great picture.”

OLED also commands a much higher price. It dominates the high-end market segments it’s in, from phones (Samsung’s $720 Galaxy S9) to televisions (LG’s $2,000 C8). Most important, only a handful of corporations—including Samsung, LG, and Sony—control its limited supply.

“Almost every company is investing to compete with Samsung,” says Jerry Kang, who leads display technology analysis at IHS, the market research firm, from Seoul. “The other companies are trying to rapidly follow.”

Kang’s firm believes the global OLED market will grow from about $26 billion in sales this year to $37.5 billion in 2022, driven largely by mobile devices. Who’s winning or losing depends on the device: Samsung supplies OLED displays to the world’s top two phonemakers (itself and Apple), yet an early decision against OLED inadvertently handed the premium-TV market to LG and Sony, each of which claimed more than a third of all sales last year, according to IHS. (“We firmly believe that we can continue to expand the world of possibilities with our OLED displays,” says a Samsung Display spokesman, adding that the company started investing in development of the technology 18 years ago.)

The war rages on as OLED prices continue to plummet and a once-premium innovation goes mainstream—just in time for the winter holiday shopping season. “It’s still relatively young technology,” says LG’s Taylor. “We’re not going to take our foot off the accelerator.”

A version of this article appears in the November 1, 2018 issue of Fortune with the headline “Black And Blue All Over.”