OLED Smartphones - introduction and industry news - Page 70

Research house IHS says that they expect flexible OLED smartphone display shipments to reach 814,000 units in 2014. IHS sees a steady but 'modest' growth in the future as shipments will almost double each year to reach 8.3 million units in 2018.

In August 2013 IHS said that they expect flexible OLED sales to reach $21.9 million in 2013 and grow quickly to almost $100 million in 2014. The flexible OLED market will continue growing at a very fast rate as it will reach almost $4 billion by 2018 and almost $12 billion by 2020.

According to a new leaked document, Samsung is set to release a 'lite' version of its Galaxy Note 3 phone. The so-called Galaxy Note 3 Neo will sport a 5.55" HD Super AMOLED display (seems similar to the Note 2 display).

It seems that the phone will be like an update to the Galaxy Note 2 - with a faster CPU and an updated Android version (4.3). It will also sport a 8mp camera and the same memory configuration of the Note 2 (2GB RAM and 16GB storage).

We already knew that LG aims to bring the G Flex smartphone to the US, but now AT&T officially announced it plans to offer the flexible OLED phone. In addition, LG revealed that Sprint and T-Mobile will also offer the phone soon.

LG says we should expect the phone in the US within a month or two (in Q1 2014), but they wouldn't reveal the price (but you can be sure this is going to be very expensive).

A new week is starting, and the rumor mill regarding Samsung's upcoming GS5 flagship smartphone's display is not stopping. The latest reports from China suggest that Samsung Display is experiencing difficulties in producing those 5.25" WQHD (560 PPI) AMOLED panels required for the GS5. Samsung may choose to adopt Sharp's 5.25" 2K Ultra HD 560 ppi LTPS LCDs.

While Samsung holds a 3% stake in Sharp, it seems highly unlikely for the company to buy displays from Sharp and not from its own display maker. We heard that SDC already started producing those 5.25" AMOLEDs, and there are also reports that the company is increasing OLED production capacity to meet demand in 2014 (from both phones and tablets).

Taiwan's Digitimes reports that local equipment suppliers are seeing increased orders from Samsung and LG for components used in smartphones with flexible displays. These orders are "mostly" for Samsung's Galaxy Round and LG's G Flex (which hints that perhaps there are new phones with flexible displays on the way).

The Taiwanese suppliers say that most phone vendors are focusing on low-priced units, but Samsung is actually looking to further its presence in the high-end market. This contrasts with a previous report from Korea that claims that Samsung is focusing on lower-end mobile phones that use LCD displays.

Samsung published a nice new infographics that shows the evolution of their mobile phone display. Samsung's first phone was released in 1988 - with a small monochrome text display that you couldn't even use for SMS messages (the phone was analog in any case).

Apple has busy patenting several new OLED and flexible display patents lately. In June 2012 the company filed for a new patent in Europe that describes several new technologies for a future iPhone device - mainly a wraparound flexible transparent display that enables new form factors, aided with an alumina powder liquid-metal process.

The main invention is an electronic device that has a 'hollow display cover structure'. The device is like a long tube (or cylinder, or other shapes) that has a wraparound transparent flexible display. Apple also describes some applications that can take advantage of these new displays and designs - a stock ticker, gaming, news, and more.

According to Business Korea, Samsung Electronics is going to focus on mid-market LCD handsets in 2014, and in an effort to bring costs down they will adopt LCD panels in more phones. Samsung Display will reduce AMOLED production and increase LCD panel production. SDC was also asked to reduce OLED prices by "at least 10%".

The article says that the high-end smartphone market is saturated and Samsung wants to focus on emerging markets such as India and China. This can be a disturbing report for the OLED industry, but it doesn't have to be so. Samsung made it clear several times that it sees OLED as the future display technology, and it plans to adopt OLEDs in its high-end devices. It is putting a special emphasis on flexible displays - and in fact it sees flexible OLEDs adopted by 40% of their mobile phones by 2018.

Samsung is expected to launch the Galaxy S5 in a few months, and there are many rumors regarding this upcoming phone. The latest report from Korea says that SDC started producing 5.25" WQHD (2560x1440, 560 PPI) AMOLED panels that will be used in the GS5. The display uses the same Diamond Pixel arrangement as in the GS4.

Earlier rumors suggested that Samsung will adopt a flexible YOUM OLED for a premium version of the GS5. As a reminder, the flexible OLED in the Galaxy Round (which can be considered a Note 3 variant) is not a YOUM display as it is uses a glass cover.

Reports from Korea say that Samsung is talking about using an LCD display in the upcoming Galaxy S5 and Galaxy Note 4 mobile phones - mostly in an attempt to reduce costs. Samsung is facing competition from lower-cost Android phones and need to lower the cost of their phones.

Samsung Galaxy S4

Samsung started adopting AMOLED displays in their high-end mobile phones years ago, but whenever people start discussing the next one, there are always rumors that they will switch back to LCD. It happened with the Note 3 and with the GS4. As we know, both phones use Super AMOLED panels.