Bloomberg posted a rather curios story today claiming that their sources say that Apple are planning to release two new phones in H2 2014. These phones will have larger displays (4.7" and 5.5") which will feature "glass that curves downward at the edges".

Samsung YOUM phone prototype

So this is rather strange. Perhaps they simply mean that the cover glass will curve downward at the edge of the phone, or it details a plastic OLED based phone that curves around the edges - like Samsung's prototype from CES 2013 (shown above) or SEL's recent OLED prototype shown last week. But then it won't have glass at all.

LG's mobile company senior VP says that the G Flex received a good response for its design from the three major mobile carriers in Korea (SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus). The phone is set to launch on Tuesday for 999,900 Korean Won (about $940) and LG says they are now in discussions with global carriers to bring the flexible OLED phone to the US, Japan and Europe.

The G Flex has a 6" 720p RGB flexible OLED display made by LG Display that is curved from top to bottom (unlike Samsung's Galaxy Round which is curved from left to right). Other features include a 2.3Ghz Snapdragon S800 CPU, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of internal memory, a 13MP camera, NFC, Android 4.2.2 and a 3500mAh non-removable battery (LG Chem's curved battery). The G Flex has two rear-mounted buttons and a "self-healing" back (that will heal scratches quickly).

LG Electronics just silently lowered the price of their 55" curved OLED TV (the 55EA9800) to $8,999 (down from $9,999). LG's TV now it costs the same as Samsung's curved OLED TV (the KN55S9C).

Interestingly, Amazon says that in they have in stock 6 LG OLED TVs and 17 Samsung OLED TVs. About two weeks ago, when I checked, they had only one LG TV in stock and 20 of Samsung's TVs. So at least 3 people bought Samsung's OLED TVs in about two weeks in the US...

Universal Display announced their financial results for Q3 2013 - $32.8 in revenues (up from $12.5 in Q2 2012) and a net income of $5.5 million. Those excellent results are "directly attributable to the commercial adoption of its red emitter, green emitter and green host materials".

Looking forward, UDC says that the "OLED industry is poised for robust growth as product roadmaps are further developed, new manufacturing capacity ramps and new display and lighting manufacturers enter the market". They raised their guidance for 2013 revenues to be $142-$144 million (the previous estimate was $110-$125 million).

A few days ago we reported about SEL's new 13.5" QFHD (3840x1260, 326 PPI) flexible OLED prototype. Now DigInfo published a video showing this new OLED panel and several prototypes showing how it can be used to design curved displays:

SEL's OLEDs use a WRGB (white OLEDs with color filters) architecture and and it uses SEL's CAAS-OS (C-Axis Aligned Crystalline Oxide Semiconductor) substrate.

In May 2013 we reported that Blackbody opened the world's first OLED lighting showroom - in New York's Soho district (25 Greene Street). Now we learned that this showroom was only officially opened last week (October 29). Blackbody says that they opening was very successful and they had a high quality crowd and got very good feedback on their OLED lighting products and their potential.

The new showroom is dedicated to creativity and will host several designer lighting solutions - all powered by Blackbody's OLEDs.

In December 2012 reports suggested that Panasonic may stop plasma R&D by March 2013. Now the company officially announced that it will cease Plasma panel (PDP) production by the end of 2013. They will put all their resources and development into UHD (4K) and OLED TV technologies. This move probably means the end of Plasma TV technology, but is good news for OLED TVs!

In January 2013 Panasonic unveiled a 56" 4K2K OLED TV panel prototype that was produced using an all-printing method. Panasonic is using Sumitomo's PLED materials and is collaborating with Sony on production technology. Panasonic aims to release the first OLED TVs in 2015, but according to some reports they are progressing fast and may be ready with a product by the end of 2013.

The Holst Center is developing OLEDs on foil, with an aim to integrate them on textiles. In the following video you can see some demonstrations of OLED and LED integrated into textiles and OLEDs on a stretchable matrix, too:

I really liked that fabric with the Holst Centre with the hidden LEDs... Nice!

Updated: This story had some inaccuracies and is now updated with new information from First-O-Lite

China's First-O-Lite says they developed an efficient (111.7 lm/W at 1,000 cd/m²) hybrid OLED lighting device (2 cm²). This is a hybrid device that uses a fluorescent blue emitter along with red and blue phosphorescent emitters. The company says that this is probably the most efficient hybrid OLED device ever produced that can meet the Energy Star color requirements.

First-O-Lite has established a volume production fab and will soon start producing OLED panels. These will feature over 55 lm/W (at 3,000 cd/m²) and will use the company's external light extraction technology.

In May 2012, the Japanese Patent Office (JPO) issued a decision regarding Universal Display's patent #4511024 - they upheld the validity of certain claimed inventions but invalidated the broadest claims. Universal Display appealed to the Japanese High Court and now they announced that the court reversed the JPO's broad claims invalidation.

The matter was remanded back to the JPO for further consideration consistent with the IP High Court’s ruling. The company who initiated the lawsuit in June 2011 was Semiconductor Energy Laboratory (SEL).