This picture of a Samsung OLED laptop prototype raises more questions than it answers. Exactly how thin and light is it? Is touch-typing easy on that keyboard? Can we add and move buttons? Where’s the mouse pad? Is the entire thing a mouse pad? What’s that funky panel doing behind the display? Why is the woman pictured on the display checking her pulse? Is she taking a CPR class? When can I have one?

Back in May of 2009, Samsung unveiled a prototype laptop with a 12.1-inch active-matrix OLED (AMOLED) display.

If you have ever seen Sony’s XEL-1 11-inch OLED TV, then you know just how cool an OLED laptop could be. OLEDs use light-emitting diodes (hence the name) made up of electroluminescent organic compounds to produce different colors. Because OLED displays do not require a backlight, they are thinner and use less power, and the images are bright, colorful, and visible at an angle. The disadvantages are that they have a shorter lifespan than LCDs, and currently are very costly to manufacture.

For a company that is a virtual unknown in laptops here in the U.S, Samsung has been making a lot of news lately. Last week, a company executive told journalists at an event in Seoul that Samsung needs to triple laptop shipments to 11 million units by 2011 (5.7% worldwide market share), or it would exit the business altogether. Samsung reportedly plans to expand sales by entering the already-crowded markets in U.S. and Europe. Samsung later stated that 11 million units was an “ambitious goal” but it had no plans to get out of laptops.

Several reports show it’s release in late 2010!