LGD’s aim is to approach investment of AMOLED in a careful way. Kwon said, Expect for Nokia, no company shows aggressive leadership. Considering productivity and original cost, there will be no big investments for AMOLED.

LGD considered mass-production investment for AM OLED panel but decided to invest in only 1 line of 3.5 generation. And Toki was selected as major equipment supplier for equipment.

This report analyzes and forecasts the rapidly emerging market for OLED lighting and answers important questions on which segments of the lighting market will see the first penetration of OLED lighting and when and what are the likely improvements that we will see in lifetimes, luminance and efficiency over the coming years.

IMID (International Meeting on Information Display) 2008 has opened in Korea, and both Samsung and LG is showing HD-OLED TVs.

Samsung Electronics is showing several models - a 31" TV, a 14" one (shown to the right) and a small 5" WVGA panel.

LG Display is showing a 19" one, based on amorphous Si TFT.

Read more here (TechOn)

GE hopes to start making several-feet-wide OLEDs soon. Their goal is start selling such products in 2010, but they know it's a very aggresive target, and they might not make it.

Since the production runs will be small by then, the prices won't be
accessible to the average consumer. But the luminous OLEDs could show
up in niche, luxury settings, like casinos or fancy restaurants, where
the thin and flexible lights could allow the creation of striking
architectural or artistic effects.

Ingo Maurer, who designed Early Future - the beautiful OLED lamp using OSRAM OLED panels, says he hopes the first two lamps will be deliveres this month.

In total, they will only make 25 of them, which are probably very expensive and not very practical - as the the light is reportedly rather dim and the panels have only 2,000 hours lifetime (D50).

OLEDs are a 'cold' flat light source - they emit no heat - and thus are safe to touch. This means that it's possible to use them as a touch-light-controller. The Fraunhofer IPMS institute showed (at the Plastic electronics 2008 conference) the world's such device

The touch function generate a completely new feeling of light. It´s
like magic: turn on the light simply by a hand movement, noted Jörg
Amelung, head of business unit of organic materials and systems at the
Fraunhofer IPMS.

Read more here (Science daily)

Visionox and Tsinghua University began manufacturing on China's first PMOLED production line in Kunshan, Jiangsu province. The new fab's capacity will be about a million panels per month.

Visionox expects to begin construction on its next OLED line in the second half of 2009.

Osram is giving some more information about their OLED lamp the Early Future at the CEATEC 2008 exhibition.

The OLED panels have a lifetime of 5,000 hours (up from 2,000), and OSRAM says that these lamps will be available by 2011 or 2012. The efficiency is 46 lm/W (1000 cd/m2).

We've just got word from an OLED world-wide reseller that we're in touch with - and they got 7.6" AMOLED panels (CMEL) on sale - in fact they are shipping evaluation samples. The displays go 16:9 aspect ratio,
800x480 resolution and white to black contrast ratio of 30,000:1.

If anyone is interested in more information about these panels, please contact me here.

Lumiotec (a new JV of several Japanese companies) has shown their new lamp prototype at CEATEC.

The "Fenalene" is a lamp made from 3 OLED panels. It reportedly has a luminance of 5,500cd/m² and a life of 10,000 hours. 

Read more here (TechOn)