Nanomarkets posted an interesting article on flexible glass (based on their Flexible Glass Market report). Basically they're saying that the opportunities for flexible glass have never been better, and they forecast that the market in 2013 will reach $125 million, and this will grow to over $2 billion before 2020.

Interestingly Nanomarkets says that the OLED market will start adopting flexible glass in 2013 - with $4 million in revenue (this will grow to $280 million by 2020). Perhaps Nanomarket thinks that Samsung will adopt flexible glass in their first YOUM flexible OLED based panels?

Samsung announced that sales of phones from the Galaxy S series just reached 100 million units. The best selling phones in the series are the S2 (40 million), S3 (30 million) and S (almost 30 million). The original Galaxy S launched in May 2010. The Galaxy S3 is now selling at an average rate of 190,000 units per day.

So, CES is now over, it's time for a summary post. A few days after announcing that accepting pre-orders for their 55" OLED TV in Korea, LG announced that the OLED TV is coming to the US - for $12,000. LG also unveiled a 55" curved OLED prototype.

Samsung unveiled a newer 55" OLED TV, but sadly the company did not detail their launch plans or pricing. Samsung had a 55" curved OLED TV of their own, quite similar to LG's set. Samsung "relaunched" their YOUM flexible AMOLEDs, showing some very neat prototypes. Again, these OLEDs aren't being produced yet, we can only hope they'll start production in 2013.

As was reported before, Samsung has unveiled a 4.99" Full HD AMOLED panel (440PPI). This panel will go into production in Q1 2013, and will probably be used in their upcoming Galaxy S4 flagship phone:

Samsung managed to achieve such a high pixel density using a modified FMM technology. According to Anandtech, Samsung also adopted a new material that makes these AMOLEDs 25% more efficient. This means that Samsung finally adopted UDC's green PHOLED materials in the new panels.

Toshiba has unveiled a (rather large and bulky) Bluetooth watch prototype called the Computer Graphics watch. It sports a 320x100 OLED panel (probably a PMOLED), an ARM processor and a Electrocardiogram (ECG) sensor. The idea is that this watch can sync to your smartphone for notifications and all sorts of applications (such as a heart-rate monitor which of course uses the ECG).

This isn't a new idea. Sony is offering a similar Android accessory called the SmartWatch (which also uses a PMOLED display, by the way, although at 1.3"). Sony's SmartWatch costs $109. The first-gen Sony LiveView, by the way, is now down to only $22.

LG Display's CEO, Han Sang-beom, said that the company will make a final decision on its OLED TV panel production capacity investment by early next month. Currently LGD is producing OLED panels in its M1 pilot line in Paju, Gyeonggi but they need more lines for mass production. If they take the decision, they will build the second M2 pilot line in Paju, which will be ready in 2014.

According to Han, the OLED TV market in 2013 will be very small, but they expect it to grow to 600,000 - 700,000 units in 2014. In 2015 it will grow further to 3 million units (or about 1% of the total TV market). DisplaySearch is more optimistic than LG, saying that the OLED TV market in 2014 will reach almost 2 million units, and in 2015 it will reach almost 5 million units.

According to Pocket-Lint, Panasonic plans to stop producing LCD TV panels in its Himeji plant, and instead use the fab to produce OLED TVs and 4K 20" tablet LCD panels. Panasonic is using printing technologies to produce its OLED TVs (with some help from Sony, too) - and they're confident their OLED panels will be "significantly cheaper" than what others makers can do.

Back in September 2012 it was reported that Panasonic has taken steps to streamline its R&D and put more focus on OLED TV development, and earlier it was reported that the company plans to convert a production line in Himeji to AMOLED production (an R&D line at first). Back then Panasonic said they will continue to produce LCD TVs, but now it seems the company will buy its LCD TV panels from a third party, and focus on tablet 4K displays and 4K OLEDs.

Sharp is showing flexible 3.4" IGZO-based flexible touch OLED prototypes at CES. These panels seems to be the same ones shown at SID back in June 2012 - and if so they have a resolution of 540x960 (326 ppi).

Sharp wouldn't say whether they intend to start producing such panels, but they did say that they have the technology to produce such panels in sizes up to 10". They say the image quality and resolution is the same as in their non-flexible OLEDs.

LG has unveiled a new 55" curved OLED TV, called the EA9800. While I don't think LG is actually close to start producing such a TV with a flexible OLED panel (they didn't discuss the release date or price), it's a good sign that they gave a model number.

The EA9800 features an Oxide-TFT WRGB Full-HD OLED panel (like LG's 55EM9700 OLED TV). The TV features "infinite" contrast ratio, passive 3D, Smart Touch Controls and a "paper-slim" design. It is made from Carbon Fiber-Reinforced Plastic (CFRP). The curved screen "removes any hint of visual distraction to maximize the viewing experience".

Samsung has officially launched their YOUM flexible OLED technology. While the YOUM brand was shown back in April 2012, it is now officially the name of Samsung's plastic-based flexible OLED panel products. The company didn't reveal any new technical details, nor did they say when they'll start shipping products based on those panels (or ship panels to other customers) - but it seems that they are getting closer and closer to mass production. Personally I think we'll still have to wait a year (at least) for them to overcome all technical issues with production.

While we don't have any interesting facts to tell here, we do have some cool videos - showing a bendable panel and also devices that use curved YOUM displays. One of those devices (shown below) has a 5" curved YOUM panel.