LG is putting curved OLED televisions on sale earlier than first thought. The electronics producer is opening up its 55-inch EA9800 to pre-orders in Korea today, with shipments in the country expected in June. The HDTV's release outside of Korea will apparently be announced in the coming months, along with regional pricing.
LG is said to be planning its first flexible OLED smartphone for a Q4 release this year, reports the Wall Street Journal [sub. req.]. The company made the indication at its Q1 conference call, where it revealed that its net profits plunged 91 percent from the same period in 2012. The displays are not only curved, but are also shatter proof, which should help to address a long standing issue for smartphone owners who have inadvertently dropped their devices.
LG has confirmed it will be placing a curved OLED TV on sale by the end of the year. The EA9800 TV, measuring 55 inches and first shown off at CES earlier this year, will be part of the first curved releases, with other larger televisions planned to be shipped at around the same time, though the exact shipping dates are unknown.
Reports that Panasonic will halt plasma-based HDTV production has been refuted by an executive as incorrect. Henry Hauser, vice president of merchandising at Panasonic USA has said that plasma panel development is still taking place, contradicting comments made by Panasonic Display vice president Kiyoshi Okamoto that the company had researched its last plasma panel.
Panasonic has stopped development of plasma-based HD television panels, and is unlikely to start up research on the display technology again. Panasonic Display Vice President Kiyoshi Okamoto confirmed the closure of plasma research and development during an event where the company revealed the pricing for its line of HDTVs for 2013.
The headquarters of Samsung Display has been searched by police, as part of an investigation into possible OLED technology theft. Officers from the South Metropolitan Police Agency searched the offices in Asan, South Korea, for documents relating to the leak of secrets to LG, specifically anything that can show if Samsung itself is involved.
Samsung is reportedly dropping its lawsuit against LG over the alleged leakage of details relating to Samsung's OLED and LCD technology. Part of an ongoing feud between the two companies, the suit has apparently been laid to rest, after both parties were supposedly in discussions over the matter this month.
LG has opened up pre-orders for its 55-inch OLED HD television in the United Kingdom. Shipping to customers in the US and South Korea later this month, the 55EM970V weighs less than 22 pounds, measures 4.5mm (0.18-inches) thick, and though will not offer the same Ultra-HD resolution as its larger 84-inch counterpart, it will still provide what is claimed to be "exceptional picture quality."
LG Display is planning to boost its organic light emitting diode (OLED) efforts with a 706 billion won ($657 million) investment. The boost of cash will go towards an eighth-generation OLED TV panel manufacturing line at its P9 plant in Paju, South Korea, expanding its current manufacturing processes by a considerable amount.
Panasonic was among the many tech giants focusing on Ultra HD and OLED display technology this week at CES. While other companies vied for industry records such as largest Ultra HD TV or largest OLED TV, Panasonic claims to have built the world's largest TV that combines both technologies. Electronista took a look at the prototype television on the CES show floor.
LG has begun taking orders for organic light-emitting diode televisions for its home market of South Korea. The world's second-largest manufacturer of televisions will begin delivering the new OLED TVs in early February, and LG will be displaying them at 1,400 retail outlets across South Korea. The 55-inch model OLED set retails for 11 million won, or about $10,000.
Samsung is to ship its next version of the Galaxy Note with a 6.3-inch OLED-based display, according to a rumor sourced from component suppliers to the company. The Galaxy Note III will apparently dwarf the Note II's 5.5-inch screen, itself being larger than the original 5.3-inch Note, and is suggested to come out in the next year.
Samsung has filed an injunction against LG, alleging that LG has continually and egregiously stolen Samsung's technologies in order to compete in the OLED (organic light-emitting diode) market space. Sources tell Yonhap News that Samsung seeks $880,514 in compensation for each case in which LG has used Samsung technologies or made public the confidential intellectual properties underlying those technologies. Samsung is currently the overwhelming leader in the OLED sector, claiming nearly 99 percent of the world's OLED market.
Samsung has had two of its highly prized OLED TVs disappear enroute to the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin. The company confirmed that it the two 55-inch sets went missing sometime between August 21 and August 28. Although the company was able to get replacement units on hand for the show, it does not know what has happened to them and has been in contact with Berlin police about the matter.
Leading China-based display makers including Visionox and Changhong along with other partners have formed a new alliance to develop OLED displays, according to Digitimes. With the battle for LCD displays largely won by the South Korean titans Samsung and LG Display, the next battleground is set to be fought on the development and production of OLED displays. While Samsung and LG Display are the early leaders in the development of OLED technologies, the new Chinese alliance now joins a recent alliance between Japanese giants Sony and Panasonic.
Sony and Panasonic have reportedly signed an agreement to jointly develop next-generation OLED panels. The deal, previously rumored last month, would help the companies share the costs of manufacturing the advanced panels destined for HDTVs, as the current costs for large OLED panels has proven too high for mass production.
Samsung is showing off production-ready models of its 55-inch OLED HDTV flagship introduced at CES. The ES9500 set is on display at the 2012 World's Fair in Korea and it will retail for more than 10 million won in its home market (over $9,000), according to the Associated Press. For that kind of money, buyers will get OLED technology and an upgradable dual-core CPU.
Sony is said to be in talks with AU Optronics for a partnership to deliver OLED TVs, according to Reuters. The rumor is consistent with Kaz Hirai’s ‘One Sony’ strategy which was detailed last week. In it, Hirai outlined his plans to turn around the TV divisions fortunes by focusing on the development of OLED televisions and moving away from traditional LCD panels.
Korea’s Samsung Group, which is comprised of 80 companies including Samsung Electronics, plans to expend a massive $41.4 billion in capital investment for 2012, according to Reuters. This includes a planned $1 billion expansion of its Austin chip fabrication plant, but is also expected that a significant chunk of the new round of capital investment will be in logic chips and the next-generation of OLED flat-screen displays. By comparison, the combined capital investment of Japanese tech heavyweights Sony, Toshiba and Hitachi is expected to total just $16.6 billion.
LG showed off a range of new products this week at CES, including a number of new TVs. Electronista took an early look at the company's 2012 lineup, which includes many 3D models and a 55-inch OLED flagship that stunned the crowds with its extreme contrast ratio and color saturation.
Toshiba has announced that it will show off several upcoming products next week at CES, including a waterproof tablet and a large glasses-free 3D TV. Aside from the waterproof tablet, which also offers wireless charging, the company will show off a different model that integrates an OLED display.
The chairman of Chinese LCD monitor maker Amtran has told industry trade publication Digitimes that his company, one of several OEM suppliers to Apple, will consider getting into the OLED monitor and potentially television business after gauging market conditions following the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The recent introduction by LG of a 55-inch OLED HDTV has fuelled speculation that Apple may use OLED for its rumored HDTV product.
LG has offered more details of its ultrathin 55-inch OLED TV set ahead of its private, media-only, unveiling at CES. The prototype TV, which in addition to currently holding the title as the largest OLED TV yet produced, is said to be much more color accurate than other OLED displays that can be prone to unnatural color gamut and hue shifting when viewed at different angles.
Despite recent reports, it's unlikely that Apple will use OLED panels in its products anytime soon, says Canaccord Genuity analyst Jonathan Dorsheimer. Last Thursday a patent application emerged suggesting Apple interest in a more power-efficient OLED display. The news helped send stock of an OLED maker, Universal Display, up 17 percent during Friday trading.
Sony is prepping a 720p display that is just 0.7-inch across. It uses OLED technology and offers a native resolution of 1280x720, while it is intended for use in electronic viewfinder applications such as cameras.
Sony has unveiled the world's first 3D compatible head mounted display, the HMZ-T1. The device, first shown at CES in January as a prototype, is equipped with two 1280x720 pixel OLED panels each measuring just 0.7-inch diagonally. When worn, the two panels combine to give the user an experience the equivalent of watching a movie theater-like 750-inch screen.
Samsung Mobile Display has teamed with Universal Display in a push for lower-power OLED displays. The two companies have entered into a licensing agreement that will allow Samsung to use Universal Display’s PHOLED technology in its OLED panels. Phosphorescent OLED panels can consume up to four times less power than OLED panels without the technology, which will translate to substantially longer battery life for mobile device users.
Apple will probably not use OLED in its rumored TVs, say "directly involved" sources cited by the Korea Times. "It's true that Apple has keen interest in TV, allowing users to stream music, videos and TV shows via iTunes, though that needs some iPhone and iPad integration, however, Apple is still pessimistic about using OLED displays," one source is quoted as saying. The person elaborates that because Apple is worried about costs and technical problems associated with large-sized OLEDs, rumors that Apple has asked LG Display to supply OLEDs for TVs are "groundless."
LG is reportedly preparing to increase its investment in OLED technology, potentially bringing the funding up to approximately $2.83 billion by the second half of 2014. The company's display division is said to be readying a small run of OLED panels that will be utilized by LG Electronics for use in a 55-inch television that is expected to arrive on the market in mid-2012.
Sony is readying much less expensive OLED monitors, according to a report. The new monitors, which are aimed at commercial users, could priced as much as 70 percent below its existing product line. Currently, a 25-inch commercial OLED monitor costs as much as $29,300.
An executive from Taiwan-based display panel maker AU Optronics suggests OLED panels of television size will not be commercially feasible until 2014, according to a DigiTimes report. The comments, which came from AUO executive vice president Paul Peng, suggest the production costs are too high as manufacturing yield rates have yet to reach a satisfactory level to compete with standard LCD panels.
Apple has yet to integrate OLED display technology into any of its products, opting instead for IPS panels and extremely high pixel densities. The company appears to be taking the technology seriously, however, as three of its latest patent applications relate to OLED displays that could be used in smartphones, tablets, computers or televisions.
Samsung has announced the details of its next generation of OLED displays, OLED Max. The new technology is more color accurate and displays images closer to their natural color. The improvements have come as the result of using new algorithms for color harmonization, detail enhancement, and intelligent contrast enhancement.
Despite a number of reviews suggesting the Nexus One's AMOLED display is superior to LCDs used on most smartphones, such as the iPhone, the testing equipment company DisplayMate came to different conclusions following a series of evaluations with both devices. The report, authored by DisplayMate president Dr. Raymond Soneira, covers a variety of observations relating to color depth, image quality, brightness, contrast ration, and more.
Images have surfaced of an unannounced Samsung handset running on the LiMo platform and headed for Vodafone. The images, posted on the Boy Genius Report, show a brushed steel housing and an OLED screen with haptic feedback. The device is said to get an 8-megapixel camera, although further hardware specs remain unknown.
Samsung's first deployment of OLED notebooks should occur in about a year, an executive from the company explains. Samsung's head of worldwide sales and marketing for computers, Kyu Uhm, revealed the information at this week's IFA expo in Berlin. "Samsung is the largest OLED screen manufacturer. And as soon as it's available commercially for laptops we will adopt it," says Uhm. "Probably sometime Q3 next year."
The world's biggest cellphone maker, Finland's Nokia, has applied for a patent that could eventually result in a phone or other portable electronic device that folds in four. According to the concept illustrations, two of the folding panels might be dedicated to the screen, while the other pair might form a large QWERTY keyboard, allowing for a notebook-like interface. It is not known whether the device will indeed be a smartphone, a UMPC or something in-between.
In a speech made last week at a seminar in Tokyo, Woo Jong Lee, the Vice President of the Mobile Display Marketing Team of Samsung SDI, said the joint venture between Samsung Electronics and Samsung SDI will bring active matrix organic LED (OLED) displays to market in notebooks by 2010. Lee pointed out advantages of the new display technology, saying by 2010, burn-in for active-matrix OLED panels won't happen for more than 2,000 hours of use. The OLED panels will be used in notebooks first because of their demanding requirements.
South Korean scientists say they have developed a new material they call "true blue" that should speed up the development of organic light-emitting displays (OLEDs), according to a weekend report. The announcement comes from a chemistry professor at Pusan National University, Jin Sung-Ho, who led the state-funded project, which was performed in conjunction with engineers at Seoul National University. Up until now, scientists had trouble developing efficient blue lights for the application. OLEDs require green, red and blue lights in their screens for proper color reproduction.
Samsung concept phone features folding OLED screen At the FPD International show recently held in Japan, Samsung showed off a cellphone with a flexible folding OLED screen that, when opened, is larger than displays from any competitor. The handset features a vertical hinge and opens like a book. Once opened, the OLED display is about 5 inches in size. The unnamed handset also has a more conventional LED display on the front panel. That front panel also sports basic phone buttons, but there is no physical keypad, suggesting the smaller display is touch-sensitive.
At the Plastic Electronic 2008 show, the Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems showed the first touch-controlled flat light source. Because Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLEDs) are cold to the touch, they could act as ideal touch controls. The innovation lies in the lack of any additional foils traditionally required to operate the light, which is both a switch and a source. Therefore, no additional hardware is required as the OLED is used to read the touch signal.
At its dealer convention held in Japan on Wednesday, Sony introduced a new Organic LED (OLED) TV prototype that uses batteries for installation or mounting flexibility along with a wireless connection to its tuner. While speakers are built-in and must therefore be powered by the battery as well, Sony executives say the lower power consumption of an OLED panel make batteries a viable solution to powering the TV, though they did not reveal battery life or more details on the wireless HD video and audio signal transmission.
Kodak has placed an order with Chi Mei EL (CMEL) for 7.6-inch OLED displays for use in the company's digital photo frames, according to today's report. CMEL specializes in manufacturing OLED panels and is owned by LCD maker Chi Mei Optoelectronics. The supplier is expected to start production of the 7.6-inch panels in September and ship them to Kodak in time for sale during the holiday shopping season.
Toshiba Matsushita Display (TMD) and Idemitsu Kosan say they have devised a new form of screen, one which could substantially improve the performance of cellphone displays. The technology is based on an OLED variant called SMOLED -- Small-Molecule Organic LED -- and in a sample, 2.2-inch QVGA screen, consumes an average of just 100mW of power. Its luminosity half-life is meanwhile rated at 60,000 hours, close to seven years of continuous operation, or 30 times longer than previous TMD designs.
Panasonic will not bring a 37-inch OLED TV to market by 2011 as reported on Tuesday, according to the company. Panasonic executives are instead hinting its OLED TVs will be sold to consumers closer to 2015, although they are officially keeping tight-lipped about specific timelines, saying only that research and development is ongoing in Japan.
Panasonic under its current Matsushita parent name said on Tuesday that the company is in the last stages of drafting plans for a 37-inch, OLED-based HDTV. Actual designs and development are still in the future but should see a screen available within three years that should be priced below $1,400, putting the new display technology within competition of today's existing LCD screens.
Sony executive Yoshito Shiraishi has revealed at the SID display expo that his company is confident enough in the development of OLED technology that it plans to make a major investment in the technology for the second half of this year. The TV producer will invest the equivalent of $210 million to help it produce larger OLED displays and expects medium-sized and larger versions of the ultra-thin screens to enter production in the same second-half 2008 timeframe. The company expects a larger-still range of OLED panels between 2009 and 2010, Shiraishi says.
LG will be rolling out its 8G television line at least half a year ahead of other Taiwanese rivals, including S-LCD, AU Optronics, and Chi Mei Optoelectronics. According to DIGITIMES, the Korean electronics manufacturer already completed its fabrication shells, and has scheduled production to begin by March 2009, and full-scale production of 32 inch OLED TVs to commence in 2011. LG's competitors will start production in late 2008.
Production of AMOLED panels should finally reach mainstream levels in 2009, according to Woo-Jong Lee, the VP of Samsung's mobile display marketing group. AMOLED is one of several display technologies that may replace stalwarts like plasma or LCD; in particular, AMOLED is said to provide higher contrast and response, as well as wider viewing angles and longer battery life. The difficulty so far, according to Lee, has been production costs -- at present, AMOLED is only economical for smaller products such as cellphones, and continues to be rare regardless.
The technology and costs are in place that Apple may still introduce an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) screen with an upcoming generation of the iPhone, according to an interview Electronista has conducted with Gartner analyst Ken Dulaney. While making it clear that claims of mass production of a 3G iPhone last week were not predictions but rather just "credible" numbers based on expectations, the researcher maintains that OLED is a realistic possibility for the iPhone's display due to power requirements for 3G radios, which almost always consume more energy than 2G radios.
