Microsoft announced today that it will stop producing Zune players - which were never a big success. The second generation Zune-HD was actually considered a very good device - but it never managed to sell in big enough numbers for Microsoft. Back in March 2011 we reported that Microsoft decided to abandon this product line, so this isn't a surprise.

Zune HD

The Zune-HD was actually considered to be a good device but it wasn't a success for Microsoft. The flash player featured Wi-Fi, HD radio and video and a 3.3" 480x272 multi-touch AMOLED display. It is still shipping from Amazon if you're interested...

NEC has unveiled a new thin (9.9mm) notebook prototype called MGX. It's an Android powered device, and the display is a 7" 1024x600 OLED touch panel. Other features include HSUPA, Wi-Fi and a two-axis design that allows folding the screen (360-degrees). The whole device weighs just 350g.

I think this is the first OLED device (even just a prototype) from NEC we've seen since the L1 phone with its small external PMOLED panel - from back in 2005...

AT&T is finally offering Samsung's flagship Galaxy S2 smartphone - for $200 (with a 2-year contract). The Galaxy S2 is the successor to the Galaxy S. It has a 4.3" WVGA Super AMOLED plus display, 1.2Ghz dual-core processor, NFC, Bluetooth 3 and HSPA+. It's only 8.49mm thick at its thinnest point.

The Galaxy S2 is also available for Sprint (it's called Epic 4G Touch, has a 4.5" display and costs $199). You can buy it unlocked for $608.

Hitachi unveiled a new 4.5" a-Si based IPS LCD display with 329ppi (720x1280). The company says that using amorphous silicon instead of an LTPS backplane means that the new display is cheaper then their previous IPS displays - with only a slight drop in performance (a lower contrast ratio).

Last month we heard that Hitachi, Sony and Toshiba signed an agreement to merge their small/medium display business. The new business venture will invest in OLED R&D and according to the companies, they consider OLED to be the core technology for next-gen small/medium displays. We do not know if Hitachi's new technology is relevant for OLEDs as well.

Nokia announced that they started shipping their N9 Meego smartphone. It will ship in several countries worldwide - but not in the US.

The N9 is Nokia's first Meego phone - and it sports a 3.9" AMOLED display (854x480, we're not sure if it's a CBD display), 16 to 64 GB memory, 1GB RAM, Bluetooth, NFC, Wi-Fi, compass and GPS. There's a 8mp F2.2 camera capable of 720p video. The phone is 'wrapped' in a polycarbonate shell and comes in three colors. Applications are Qt 4.7 compatible and HTML5 support in built in.

TDK announced that it sold all its shares in its subsidiary TDK Micro Device Corporation to Futaba Corporation. The two companies dissolved their equity-based business alliance. Back in August 2009, TDK and Futaba established a three-way alliance to develop PMOLED products and market them.

TDK says they want to "selectively focus on business activities". From what we hear they will no longer be involved in OLEDs at all. TDK Micro Device has recently started to produce transparent PMOLED displays and have also shown flexible PMOLED panels which were planned to enter mass production towards the end of 2011.

eMagin announced that SNU Precision shipped their new, proprietary OLED deposition machine. It is scheduled to arrive at eMagin’s production facility in Hopewell Junction, New York, in early November. eMagin signed the agreement to build this machine back in August 2010, and the original plan was to install it in Spring 2011 - so this is a delay of about half a year. The machine costed $4 million and replaces eMagin's existing Satella OLED deposition machine, an R&D tool adapted and used by eMagin for both R&D and production since the Company’s inception in 1996.

The new OLED deposition machine is expected to increase OLED microdisplay deposition capacity by approximately tenfold, to increase yield, and to contribute to a substantially more efficient, automated process with lower maintenance requirements and greater utilization.