Korea's NeoView Kolon has been developing OLED panels for a long time, and while we knew the company is already producing transparent panels, it was a nice surprise to learn that the company is also developing flexible panels. In fact, in this nice video that was sent to us, you can see a prototype flexible transparent OLED:

The video also shows some older transparent OLED prototypes for the automotive market that the company developed for Kia, and the company's TOvi transparent OLED-based HUD that is already shipping in the Korean market.

It seems that LG is so proud of its OLED TVs (justifiably so, really) that it uses a unique packaging. It is highly recyclable, as it is all made from cardboard without any glue, and it uses a modular design that you can easily take apart and fold.

I don't know whether LG uses this packaging for all their OLED TVs, or for just one model. Currently the company offers 3 different 55" models - the curved 55EA9800, the flat 55EM9700 and the flat 55EA8800 (GALLERY TV).

Researchers from the University of Michigan, trying to make OLED brighter but still efficient, discovered that a pyramid-shaped OLED lamp is more efficient than a flat panel shape. The idea is that the reflective OLEDs are emitting in the inside of the pyramid, and all the light comes out of the open base.

The surface emitting light on the inside is more than four times larger than the opening at the base of the pyramid, but the whole pyramid consumes about three times less electricity than trying to achieve the same brightness with a flat panel the size of the base. In addition, the researchers found out that this device achieves a better light distribution (the "halo" effect).

In May 2011, I launched The OLED Handbook, my comprehensive guide to OLED technology, industry and market. The book is now in its fourth edition, and I'm quite proud to say that over a 1,000 copies have been sold in three years! And this does not include site/enterprise licenses and upgrades.

So yes - I'm bragging a little bit, but it's also great to see more and more people and companies from all over the world that want learn more about OLEDs as the technology gets more and more prevalent. And of course this provides great social-proof. If you haven't yet bought and read the OLED Handbook, please consider doing it today...

According to Korea's Yonhap news, Samsung Display is seeking to sell outdated LCD equipment from its Cheonan LCD fab. SDC is in talks with China's Truly to offload this equipment.

Yonhap says that SDC still haven't decided what to install in the soon-to-be-empty fab location, and the Korean maker may install a new OLED production line in this place.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, in collaboration with Okamura and Taisei, developed an OLED desk lamp for offices. Taisei is constructing a Net-Zero Energy Building (ZEB) in Yokohama, and the OLED lamps will be installed in this building for testing.

The Japanese government has called for new public buildings to be ZEB-compliant by 2020. Lighting takes up about 20% of the electricity in offices so it is a key target for energy saving efforts.

Nanomarkets released a new OLED materials market report, in which they forecast that the OLED material market will grow from $900 million in 2014 to $3.7 billion in 2019. Almost 45% of material revenues will come from the core functional materials (the OLED stack, as we call it: EML, ETL, HTL/EBL and HIL). The rest of the materials are electrode, encapsulation and substrate materials.

According to Nanomarkets, OLED TV future is still uncertain, especially since Samsung is "having second thoughts about this business" (I don't really agree with them on that). Nanomarkets still expects strong OLED display growth on from smartphones, tablets and wearables. Solution processing is making good progress, and Nanomarkets expects the soluble material market to grow from $40 million in 2014 to $335 million in 2019.

There's an interesting report from Korea that suggests that Apple and Samsung are showing "signs of a ceasefire" in their long-running patent fight. According to the report, Apple wants to keep Samsung as its component supplier.

Apple 2011 flexible OLED watch patent

Samsung Display is a key Apple supplier. SDC makes 9.7" LCD panels for Apple's iPads, and they shipped over 5 million such panels in Q1 2014 alone (Apple is on of SDC's top three clients, responsible for 9% of SDC's sales).

According to UBI Research, the AMOLED market reach $2.3 billion in Q1 2014, up 42% from Q4 2013 (which was a soft quarter, 36% lower than Q3 2013). Samsung Display is still of course the major AMOLED producer.

LGD's market share was only 2% - producing flexible OLEDs and 55" OLED TV panels. But UBI expects LGD's market share to expand gradually. UBI says that LGD sold 50% more OLED TVs in the quarter compared to Q4 2013 (this is by revenue, which means that shipments almost doubled as the price keeps dropping). UBI expects LGD's OLED TV sales to grow by more than 60% in Q2 2014 as Chinese TV start marketing TVs with LGD's OLED panels, and LG Electronics expand OLED TV sales to more countries.

In January 2014, SDC confirmed that it is developing a QHD (2560x1440) AMOLED panel. Today the company announced a new phone for the Korean market, the Galaxy S5 LTE-A which sports this new 5.1" QHD panel. This panel reaches a very high PPI (577) which makes it the world's highest density AMOLED, and probably the highest density mobile display (beating LG's G3 display which is a 5.5" QHD LCD, 538 PPI).

We don't know much about this display, but it probably uses some kind of Pentile display (or Diamond Pixel like the GS5). While this phone will probably be exclusive for Korea (it will be released via SK Telecom later this summer), hopefully Samsung will also release a similar upgraded GS5 phone with a QHD panel worldwide. It's also likely that the Note 4 will sport a QHD panel too. Samsung, by the way, does not plan to stop QHD. The company is actually developing a UHD mobile display - that will reach 870 PPI (!).