Heraeus, a German precious metals and technology group, based in Germany, has bought the Clevios business unit from H.C. Starck. Clevios developed a wide range of Conductive Polymers that have been developed for use as the hole injection layer (HIL) in OLED displays. The transaction is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2010. The parties have agreed to keep the purchase price confidential.

There are reports that LG plans to release the 31" OLED 3D TV in March 2011. The TV will cost around $9000... not cheap. LG's 15" EL9500 costs around $3000 - so the new TV will be about 1.5 times more expensive per inch. Then again, it's thinner, and supports 3D TV (which uses polarized glasses, not active-shutter ones).

Engadget's team loves the TV: "We promised ourselves it would just be a quick look ... three hours later we found ourselves still planted in the same spot, a small trickle of drool dripping all over our camera gear". They also say that the 3D images were "surprisingly sharp".

Back in June, we reported about an upcoming Samsung 'Galaxy' PMP (YP-MB2) - a device rather similar to the Galaxy S phone - without the phone capability. We even found a video of the device. Today Samsung launched their Galaxy Player 50, which is probably the same player - but it does not have an OLED - it has an LCD instead.

It's possible that Samsung wanted to use a Super-AMOLED indeed, but had to go for LCD because, as we posted a couple of days ago, Samsung can't keep up with AMOLED production demand as it is. It's also possible that this device isn't the YP-MB2, really, and Samsung is yet to announce it.

Remember NKK's programmable OLED pushbutton switch? Introducing in July 2008, it includes a 65K color OLED module capable of full-motion video. Today NKK announced that they have released a new version that doubles the lifetime of the OLED display (to 30,000 hours) and reduced the power consumption by 30%.

Samsung has officially launched the Galaxy Tab today - and it has a 7" TFT-LCD display. Even though we had rumors of a Super-AMOLED display for months, an LCD was expected. Like we posted earlier today: Samsung can't keep up with AMOLED production demand as it is, and there's no way they can use OLEDs in new devices.

Samsung Galaxy S and Galaxy Tab

Beside the 7" TFT-LCD 9that has a 1024x600 resolution, by the way), the Tab runs Android 2.2 on a 1Ghz A9 processor, has 16/32GB of internal memory and a microSD slot, 1.3mp front camera and a 3mp rear camera, 3G for data and voice (but no earpiece - you have you use bluetooth or a speakerphone), Wi-Fi and Full-HD video playback.

Back in May, Samsung (the only company with a mass-production AMOLED plant) announced that they can't meet up with the demand for AMOLED displays. Soon later we heard that the HTC Incredible is suffering from AMOLED shortage, and later on HTC decided to use LCDs instead of OLEDs in that phone (and others). Samsung, meanwhile, is said to be keeping all Super-AMOLED displays for themselves.

In fact, HTC is not alone: Pantech made the same decision, and we keep hearing of new devices that were originally said to have AMOLEDs, but actually use LCDs instead. Samsung's own Galaxy-S phone is a huge success, so even Samsung probably cannot use AMOLEDs in other devices.

A few days ago we reported that T-Mobile is set to release a new android phone, the HTC G2, which will have an AMOLED display. T-Mobile has officially announced the phone, although the specs aren't available yet. But it seems that it'll have a Super-LCD display rather than an AMOLED.

It seems that until the AMOLED supply shortage is over, we won't see a lot of new AMOLED phones (except from Samsung, in any case).

There are some rumors that Microsoft are working on a new Zune player, and they'll release it in early 2011. That's about all we know... If true, it's likely to use an OLED: the Zune-HD has one, and they might be using software similar to the WP7 - which is actually designed to be used on OLED display.

Zune HD

The Zune HD has a 3.3" 16:9 480x272 multi-touch OLED, HD radio and video (720p) and Wi-Fi. It costs $350 for 64GB, 215$ 32Gb and 157$ for the 16Gb.

INS Mobile's iVidi is now shipping for $229. The iVidi has a large (3.3" WQVGA 480×272) AMOLED display, Wi-Fi, T-DMB TV tuner, microSD slot, accelerometer and an e-reader software.

Buy the iVidi now for $229!

Here's the first photo of LG's booth in IFA 2010, or at least the part of the booth that shows the new 31" OLED TV. The TV is said to be just 0.29cm thick, support polarized 3D and have a 600Hz refresh rate. It's most likely just a prototype.