你見過最新的數字顯示屏嗎？當然。你曾伸著脖子看著智能手機，瀏覽著車載娛樂系統，也曾對著大屏電視機打過哈欠。實際上，你甚至害怕有人看到你iPhone上的Screen Time應用給出的驚人的統計數據。（每天花在回應大家庭的社交媒體郵件的時間：超出平均水平兩小時。）

沒錯，你對這些發光屏幕的熱情仿佛一種原始的欲望，就像飛蛾一樣。不過你是否真正看過近來的最新產品？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。它們看起來和你的那些老款設備的屏幕有些不同。那是因為一項被稱作OLED的技術。

OLED指的是有機發光二極管（organic light-emitting diode），它與過去十年里占據主導地位的顯示屏技術LED和LCD在簡稱的字母上可能有些相似，不過實質上卻有根本性的不同。LG電子（LG Electronics）美國區的發言人約翰·泰勒表示：“OLED發出的是自己的光，因此在像素質量上具有明顯優勢。每個像素都可以單獨控制，這意味著它能創造出完美的黑階，這是優秀影像中最重要的元素。”

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

市場研究公司IHS的顯示屏技術研究主管杰瑞·康在首爾表示：“幾乎每家公司都在努力投資與三星競爭，剩下那些公司則試圖快速效仿。”

IHS認為，全球OLED市場的銷售額將會從今年的約260億美元增長到2022年的375億美元，其主要驅動因素在于移動設備。誰是贏家則取決于設備：三星為全球排名前二的手機制造商[它本身和蘋果（Apple）]提供OLED屏幕，而早期不采用OLED的決定無意間讓公司把高端電視市場拱手讓給了LG和索尼。根據IHS的數據，后兩者的電視銷售額都占據了全球總銷售額的三分之一以上。（三星顯示器公司的發言人表示：“我們堅定認為，可以利用我們的OLED顯示屏繼續開拓這個充滿可能性的世界。”并補充稱三星早在18年前就開始了這項技術的研發投資。）

隨著OLED的價格繼續攀升，曾經高檔的創新成為主流，整個世界都為之激動，而冬天的假日購物季也恰好即將來臨。LG的泰勒表示：“它仍然屬于新興技術，我們不會松開油門。”（財富中文網）

本文的另一個版本登載于《財富》雜志2018年11月1日刊，標題為“Black And Blue All Over”。

譯者：嚴匡正

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.”