LG announced that they will start shipping the 55EM9700 OLED TV on Monday (February 18). LG says they got over 100 pre-orders, which is quite good. The TV is available only in Korea and for $10,000. Hopefully LG will be encouraged enough to start investing in more OLED capacity...

The 55" 55EM9700 is a Full-HD OLED TV 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 Chem sent us an update on their OLED lighting program, with some very exciting news. Besides planning flexible OLED lighting panels in July 2013 (I already posted about this earlier), LG says they have successfully developed high efficiency OLED lighting panels (80 lm/W, similar to CFLs) that will enter mass production in July 2013 (together with the flexible panels). These will be the world's most efficient OLED panels (beating LG Chem's current 60 lm/W panels).

The upcoming 80 lm/W will feature 20,000 hours lifetime (LT70), 3000K color temperature, brightness of 75 lumens (3000 cd/sqm) and a CRI of 85. The first 80 lm/W panels will be 100x100 mm in size and only 1.1 mm thick (thinner than LG's current panels which are 1.8mm thick). LG says that these panels will have a surface temperature of 26 degrees - roughly around room temperature (this is better than their current panels).

We've just got word from LG Chem that the company now plans to start mass producing the world's first flexible OLED lighting panels in July 2013 (and also high-efficiency 80 lm/W rigid panels). This is exciting news and if LG Chem will indeed go through with this plan it will be an important milestone for OLED lighting. Those OLED panels will be 200 x 50 mm in size and will feature 45 lm/W and a color temperature of 4,000K.

LG's flexible panels are only 0.33 mm thick and weigh under 8 grams - which not only allows new design possibilities but is also useful for energy saving for applications sensitive to weight (electric cars, airplanes, submarines, etc).

Konica Minolta will unveil new flexible OLED lighting panels at the Lighting Fair 2013 exhibition in Tokyo next month (March 5). Their flexible OLEDs will debut in a "variety of forms", and visitors to KM's booth will be able to experience those new panels. 

We do not have any more information yet - hopefully KM will give technical details soon (or during the exhibition). Back in 2010 KM (together with GE) unveiled flexible OLED panel prototypes, but it seems that now the company is set to actually releasing products. The 2010 prototypes achieved 56 lm/W (and "commercially viable lifetime") using soluble materials in a roll-to-roll process. In 2010 the companies announced plans to produce those panels in 2011, but obviously this never happened. We're not sure if GE is involved in these new panels.

Back in May 2011 Philips announced that they are investing €40 million in a new OLED lighting production line in Aachen. Today Philips inaugurated the new line - which has been producing OLEDs since Q3 2012 in fact (but it's only official now).

Philips say that this new line is the largest and "most modern" OLED lighting line in the world. The clean-room is approximately 2,000-square meter in size. The new line is adjacent to Philips' pilot line that's been producing OLEDs since 2007. Philips plans to produce all their panels in the old line, but the old one will remain in service - mostly for custom orders or additional capacity if the new line is fully booked.

Samsung and LG have agreed to resolve their OLED dispute outside of the court of law, and today Samsung dropped their injunction against LG. This is a good sign that the two companies will actually make peace on OLED technology - which will hopefully accelerate OLED development.

Samsung and LG have been involved in a legal battle over OLED IP for almost a year now. DisplaySearch speculated earlier this week that the two Korean giants may eventually collaborate on OLED technology, mostly due to fear from Japanese competition.

iSuppli posted updated OLED TV shipments forecast for 2013-2015, and they see a slightly lower shipment volume compared to their previous estimates in January 2012. Now the company estimates that in 2013 only 1,600 OLED TV sets will be sold. This will grow to 1.7 million TVs in 2015.

iSuppli assumes that the only OLED TV to ship in 2013 is LG's 55EM9700. They think that Samsung will not be able to start production of their F9500 OLED TV in 2013. This conflicts with reports from Korea claiming that Samsung will actually launch their OLED TV next week. Hopefully iSuppli are wrong on that one.

A couple of months ago we posted about a rumor claiming that Apple is working on a PMOLED Bluetooth smartwatch. Now the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal are both posting a similar story, which actually gives this rumor some credibility. This time they say that Apple is working with their long-time manufacturing partner Hon Hai Precision Industry.

We're not sure what is meant exactly by "curved glass". We have seen devices with curved rigid glass before (for example the Nexus S). The New York Times speculates that the new iWatch will use Corning's flexible Willow glass (shown in the video below) - and so probably the whole display will be curved, maybe something similar to the prototypes Samsung unveiled at CES.

Earlier this week we reported that Samsung and LG will attempt to resolve their OLED technology patent disputes and settle the lawsuits outside of the courts. Now DisplaySearch posted an interesting article in which they speculate that the two Korean companies may cooperate on OLED TV technologies.

DisplaySearch gives three reasons for this possible cooperation:

CES 2013 was exciting - what with the new OLED TVs and Flexible OLED prototypes and launches. Barry Young from the OLED Association, one of the world's top OLED experts, gave us his views on the new OLED developments from Samsung, Sony, LG and Panasonic. Thanks Barry!

Sony and Panasonic both showed 4K2K 56" OLED TVs, with some parts jointly developed. How close are these two companies to actual mass production?