Panasonic unveiled a 56" 4K (3840x2160) OLED TV panel prototype that was produced using an all-printing method. Panasonic calls this the "RGB all-printing method" and they say that all the organic materials were deposited using ink-jet printing. Panasonic says that their OLED panels deliver superb image quality, high contrast and fast response rate. The panels are efficient, ulta-thin and light weight. Panasonic considers OLED as a "promising option for next-generation displays".

Panasonic's panel uses a top-emission structure with a transparent cathode, which results in a more efficient panel (Sony's OLEDs use the same structure, this may be Sony's technology). The panel's TFT substrate was supplied by Sony (so it's probably an Oxide-TFT based panel) as part of the two companies collaboration. Interestingly, even though it seems that they use red, green and blue sub-pixels, Panasonic applied a color filter layer as well - to tune the emission color and achieve high color purity and "superb color reproduction".

Remember Philips' LivingShapes interactive OLED mirror? those cool and clever €2,490 devices use 64 (8x8) square OLED panels and infrared sensors that detects the outline of the person looking at the mirror and switches off the OLEDs that are in the field of vision - thus turning it into a mirror. Philips just posted this nice photo showing a London Optician that installed three mirrors in one of his showrooms:

The OLED panels are 42x44.2 mm in size, have a color temperature of 3,000K and have a typical luminance of 1,500 cd/m². The total lumen output when all OLEDs are on is 400 lm.

Today at CES Samsung unveiled a new 55" curved OLED TV prototype. According to Samsung, a curved TV provides depth to the image and so enables a more life-like viewing experience. This is especially true for panorama landscapes and nature scenes, they say you'll feel surrounded by the beautiful scenery.

This is just a prototype, probably nowhere near production, and Samsung wouldn't reveal any technical details. Unlike Samsung's Nexus S phone which used a regular OLED and curved glass, this seems to be an actually curved flexible OLED panel, at least from the photos.

LG Display's CEO, Han Sang-beom, says that the company is in talks with Japanese TV makers for the supply of OLED TV panels. Han says that the Japanese companies are "very much interested in OLED panels".

Last week LG Display finally launched their first OLED TV, the 55" 55EM9700 - which costs around $10,000 in Korea and $12,000 in the US (will start shipping in March). LG capacity is still very low so it seems strange that they will be able to supply other companies besides LGE. Still it seems that even though LG plans to invest heavily in OLED TV production in 2013, a commitment from another maker for OLED panels will make LGD more confident in its OLED investment.

Samsung announced a new OLED TV, the F9500 (full model number: KN55F9500). Samsung now calls this a "Real OLED TV" as it uses direct-emission RGB OLED subpixels. The panel is a Full-HD panel, 55" in size. This TV features voice and hand UI recognition, smart TV features (the engine is 1.35Ghz quad-core CPU), new picture processing technologies and active-shutter 3D (with Multi-View support via optional $99 3D headphone glasses).

Samsung OLED TVs at SID 2012

It's disappointing that Samsung wouldn't reveal any definite launch dates and prices. They do aim to start shipping in 2013 though. So now it seems that LG will indeed be the first one to ship OLED TVs - in fact they'll do so next month in Korea. Samsung says that the direct emission OLED structure is more efficient and better looking than LG's WRGB structure, but it seems that the WRGB structure is indeed easier to fabricate, which is obviously an advantage.

So, the rumors were accurate - Sony has actually developed the world's first 4K2K (3840x2160) OLED TV panel, and unveiled a prototype unit. The panel is 56" in size and uses an Oxide-TFT and Sony's own "Super Top Emission" OLED technology.

Sony wouldn't reveal any technical specification - they only said that this panel "delivers all the features expected from OLED TVs, such as high contrast, brightness, rapid video image response time and rich images produced even at wide viewing angles". But that's just as well - Sony wouldn't say anything about a release date (or expected price) of this display either. They just said that "Sony will continue to research OLED technology with the goal of commercializing its new 4K OLED televisions".

Just a few days after launching their 55" OLED TV in Korea (shipments will begin in February), LG announced that the 55EM9700 is coming to the US, too, with a price tag of $11,999. LG says you can actually place an order now, although we do not know how to do so (LG'g OLED TV page doesn't have a buy-now option yet).

LG's 55" 55EM9700 is a Full-HD panel that features 100,000,000:1 contrast ratio and fast response time (1,000 times faster than LCD according to LG). The panel is only 4mm thick and weighs only 3.5Kg. The OLED panel is based on LG Display's Oxide-TFT white-OLED with color filters (WRGB) OLED panel.

LG Group will invest a record amount this year (20 trillion Won, almost $19 billion - a 19% increase from 2012). Most of this money will go into new manufacturing lines (about 14 trillion won, or $13 billion), R&D and acquisitions. LG will be "banking heavily" on OLED displays and LTE technology and devices.

Officials from LG say that the huge investment in OLEDs will help LG gain a competitive advantage over Samsung in a "number of markets". Obviously OLED TV is one of those markets, but I'm not sure which other markets is LG hinting at. Perhaps the mobile display market, which LG aims to tackle with flexible plastic-based OLEDs.

Intel and Plastic Logic have jointly developed a new paper-like tablet prototype (which they call PaperTab). These tablets use Plastic Logic's 10.7" flexible touch E Ink displays and Intel's Core i5 processors. A user can use several PaperTabs devices at the same time, and these can interact between them, as can be seen in the video below:

Roel Vertegaal, a director in Queen's University's human media lab (who's also involved in this projector) estimates that most computers will look and feel like that - within five to ten years. It's likely that the displays will be full-color OLED ones by then, though...

According to The Verge website, Sony is going to unveil a new 4K2K (UHD) OLED TV later this week at CES 2013 (The Verge does not say anything about the size of the TV, but it'll probably be at least 55").

Sony OLED TV prototype

We'll know soon if this is true, but this may mark Sony's return to the OLED TV market. Sony officially stopped offering the small 11" XEL-1 OLED TV back in 2011, but later in 2012 the company said they plan to start making major investments in OLED TV technologies. Sony is collaborating with Panasonic on OLED TV production technology, and in September 2012 they promised us OLED TVs by 2014.