OLED Smartphones - introduction and industry news - Page 76

A slide detailing the upcoming Blackberry A10 has been leaked, and it details a phone that is not very much different from the Z10, except for the display - which is a 5" 1280x720 (295 PPI) S-Stripe OLED. If this is true, this will be Blackberry's second OLED phone following the Q10 with its square 3.2" 720x720 OLED.

Other features of the A10 include a dual-core 1.7Ghz CPU, LTE, NFC, BlackBerry OS 10.2, 8mp camera, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of flash memory and a large 2,800 mAh battery. Interestingly back in October 2012, a slide detailing the upcoming Aristo phone was leaked, with specs that are pretty similar to this, although the display was a bit smaller at 4.65" - but still an OLED with a resolution of 1280x720.

Samsung reported their preliminary financial results for Q2 2013. While they posted a record operating profit (over $8 billion, up 47% compared to Q2 2012), they missed analysts estimates, mostly due to disappointing GS4 sales.

According to reports, Samsung already sold 20 million GS4s in just over two months - about 70% faster than the GS3. But still analysts expected more. Hopefully when Samsung actually reports the final results, they'll comment on the GS4 sales. Samsung plans to sell 100 million units of their flagship smartphone.

Samsung launched the GS4 towards the end of May. They sold 10 million units in less than a month, and now Korean media report that sales reached the 20 million mark - in just over two months. Even though sales have reportedly slowed down, the GS4 is still selling about 70% faster than the GS3.

Samsung still plans to sell 100 million units of the GS4. Samsung's flagship phone features a 4.99" Full-HD (1920x1280, 441 PPI) Super AMOLED display, an Octa-core (Quadcore in some models) 1.6Ghz CPU, 2GB of memory, 13 mp camera and a 2,600 mAh battery. The GS4 includes a lot of new software features and special UI controls, include the Adapt Display which allows extensive display calibration adjustments.

Two days ago we reported on new rumors from Korea saying that Samsung will have to use IPS-LCD displays in about 10% of the Note 3 phones due to expected AMOLED production shortages. Today MT Media (a Korean publication) posted an "Exclusive" article in which they say that Samsung will in fact use a plastic-based unbreakable 5.99" YOUM OLED display in the Note 3.

YOUM phone prototype, CES 2013

This coincides with the OLED Association claim back in April that the Note 3 phone will use a YOUM display. Samsung's YOUM capacity (especially for these relatively large 5.99" panels) will be quite limited at first, but it seems that Samsung really has to innovate in their new phones. The GS4 is a great phone with a terrific display, but it isn't really innovative in hardware or design (and some suggest that sales aren't as good as Samsung hoped for).

A new report from Korea suggests that Samsung will use IPS-LCD displays in some Note 3 models. The Korean company aims to have about 10% of the Note 3 phones use LCD displays. The rest will use Super AMOLED displays. Apparently Samsung will buy those LCD displays from Sharp (Samsung owns about 3% of the troubled display maker following a recent investment).

Galaxy Note II

The main reason the report gives for this decision is that Samsung may have an AMOLED supply issue. Earlier this month DisplaySearch estimated that AMOLED supply/demand ratio will fall to 1% in Q4 2013 - basically saying that supply will be very tight with a good chance shortages. So perhaps Samsung is working on a backup plan by designing models with LCDs instead of AMOLEDs.

LG Display says they expect to start mass producing flexible OLEDs in Q4 2013 and supply them to "major clients". One of these clients is LG Electronics who want to produce the first flexible-OLED phone by the end of 2013.

LGD says that they already completed the development of those displays. As far as we know LG's flexible panels uses polyimide coated substrate and direct-emission RGB sub-pixels (as opposed to LG's OLED TV which use an WRGB technology - white OLEDs with color filters). The first panels won't actually be flexible, but they may be curved. They will also be lighter, thinner and much more durable compared to glass-based OLEDs.

Back in February we heard reports that Samsung Display is considering to construct a 6.5-Gen (1500x1800 mm) LTPS AMOLED fab. Now new reports from Korea say that Samsung indeed decided to go ahead with this new line, which is scheduled to begin operation towards the end of 2013. The monthly production capacity will be somewhere between 20,000 to 40,000 substrates.

Samsung's investment in the new line will be around 1.7 trillion Won ($1.5 billion USD), and they will begin ordering equipment in Q3 2013. The new line will produce panels for OLED TVs and mobile devices - we assume not just for mobile phones but also for tablets and perhaps even laptops. This will be the world's largest LTPS line - and an interesting and adventurous undertaking by Samsung.

Digitimes Research says they expect AMOLED handset panel shipments to reach 363 million units in 2015, up 332% from 2011 (110 million units). They expect Samsung and LG to produce 83.7% of the AMOLED market in 2015 (down from 97.7% today).

In 2015, mobile phone panels will account for 88.7% of total AMOLED panel shipments (79.5% of the AMOLED market in terms of value). OLED TV panels will account for 12.4% of the AMOLED market in 2015 in terms of value. Digitimes expects both Samsung and LGD to significantly increase their OLED TV panel output in 2014-2016, and they say the companies will be able to start profiting on OLED TV panels around 2014-2015 as yields increase.

Samsung sold 10 million GS4 phones in less than a month, and the GS4 was Samsung's fastest selling phone. But now analysts claim that orders are slowing down, and Samsung lowered its monthly supply orders to 7-8 million units down from 10 million. They say that demand in Korea and Europe is "weak".

Samsung recently launched new "mid-range" phones (such as the GS4 mini) and this may be cannibalizing flagship smartphone sales. Samsung originally hoped to sell over 100 million GS4 units, perhaps they were too optimistic. - or double the GS3 sales. The GS4 is currently available in more than 110 countries and will be rolled out to a total of 155 countries soon.

Samsung announced the new Galaxy S4 Active phone - that is water and dust proof (it can be submerged in up to three feet of water for up to 30 minutes). The display is a 5" Full-HD (443 ppi) panel - but it is an LCD and not an OLED like in the regular GS4.

The S4 Active has a 1.9Ghz quad-cre CPU, LTE, 8mp camera and Android 4.2.2. It will launch in the UK and the US during the summer.