Flat-panel televisions based on plasma and liquid crystal display (LCD) technology have been available for mass consumption for a couple of years already -- an eternity in tech time. Which means -- what else? -- it's time for the next big advance in technology to come along and make these two obsolete.
That's right. Even as companies such as Philips
An SED set will supposedly combine the best of both television-viewing worlds: Like LCD or plasma, it will be just a few inches thick and light enough that you can hang even the largest SED screen on your living-room wall (a little to the left, now down an inch -- perfect! Right next to the painting of Aunt Esmeralda). An SED set should also consume less power than an electricity-hungry plasma yet produce images as sharp and bright as a standard cathode ray tube set.
So how best to play the possibility that Toshiba and Canon are right in their predictions and that SED is the wave of the future? There's the obvious choice, of course: Buy shares of Toshiba or Canon. But there's also another way. According to trade publication Platinum Today, a thin coating of palladium oxide on an SED's screen is integral to this technology. So Fools might want to consider investing in producers of that rare element, palladium.
Going that route, it's a pretty easy choice whom to buy. All by its lonesome, Russia's Norilsk Nickel (NQB: NILSY) produces 70% of the world's palladium. The company also owns a stake in a U.S.-based palladium producer, Montana's Stillwater Mining
For ancient Foolish news on the apparently already obsolete LCD/plasma industry, read:
Fool contributor Rich Smith owns no shares in any company mentioned in this article.