A Samsung vice president told attendees at a seminar in Tokyo that he believes OLED displays will begin to appear in laptops by 2010, and that by 2015 they’ll account for 28% of all laptop displays, at a cost of only 10% more than the current standard, LCDs. OLEDs have several advantages over LCDs: they consume less power and their contrast ratio is superior, as the dark portions of the image are not washed out by a backlight. They are also an excellent match with touchscreen technology. Currently, though, they’re extremely expensive and have a relatively short lifespan, making them an unattractive option for the average consumer — something Samsung believes it will soon remedy by bringing the lifespan up to 2,000 hours. That’s still a far cry from the LCD lifespan, but it’s a start.

It also forces us OLED fans to wait out a potential release for another year…