Tinmonoxide (SnO) is considered as one of the most important p-type oxides available to date. Thin films of SnO have been reported to possess both an indirect bandgap (similar to 0.7 eV) and a direct bandgap (similar to 2.8 eV) with quite high hole mobility (similar to 7 cm(2)/Vs) values. Moreover, the hole density in these films can be tuned from 10(15)-10(19) cm(-3) just by controlling the thin film deposition parameters. Because of the above attributes, SnO thin films offer great potential for fabricating modern electronic and optoelectronic devices. In this article, we are reviewing the most recent developments in this field and also presenting some of our own results on SnO thin films grown by pulsed laser deposition technique. We have also proposed a p-n heterostructure comprising of p-type SnO and n-type ZnO which can pave way for realizing next-generation, all-oxide transparent electronic devices. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.