Samsung took a step back from the OLED TV market a while back. While the company released the S9C curved OLED TV back in June 2013, they never followed up with newer models and actually stopped OLED TV production and marketing.

Samsung Electronics US chief said yesterday that the company has no plans to release new OLED TVs in the US, but they can "respond quickly" in this market if they see consumer demand. This is in stark contrast to LG Electronics which has just recently released a new OLED TV in the US, and who's planning to introduce 65" 4K TVs soon.

TCL Group announced that it is going to raise 5.7 billion RMB ($926 million) in a private placement (there will be 10 different investors) to build CSOT's T2 8.5-Gen fab. This fab will use Oxide-TFT substrates and will produce both LCDs and AMOLEDs. The company filed information which specifically mentioned that this fab is important due for the future OLED technology.

CSOT's 8.5-Gen Oxide-TFT fab was discussed back in July 2013, but we do not have any information regarding its capacity and how CSOT plans to split it between LCD and AMOLED production. A $926 million investment is not very large for such a fab, so this is probably just the first production line. Earlier estimates for the cost of this fab were 24.4 billion RMB (just over $4 billion).

Update: it turns out the Moto 360 uses an LCD, and not an OLED...

On March 2014 Motorola showed their first smartwatch, the beautiful Moto 360. This Google Android Wear OS device uses a round display, which is probably an OLED but we're not sure. Motorola sent out invitations today to a launch event on September 4th, and they will probably finally unveil this interesting device.

From the invitation, it seems that Motorola will also show new smartphones, including the follow-up to their flagship Moto X with it's 4.7" 720p AMOLED display. Motorola has been using AMOLEDs for several of its phones in past years, so it's likely their new devices will also use OLED displays.

UBI Research released a new AMOLED manufacturing equipment market forecast report, in which they estimate that the total market size ill be about 36 trillion Won (about $35 billion) from 2015-2020.

In terms of machines, the largest market share (30%) will be taken by steppers, following by evaporators (17%). If we look at display components, 69% of the manufacturing equipment sales will go to backplane machines, following by evaporation deposition machines (17%) and encapsulation machines (14%).

eMagin, the OLED microdisplay maker, reported their financial results for Q2 2014. Revenues were $7 million (the same as in Q2 2013), while net loss was $1 million (the same again as in Q2 2013).

eMagin XGA096 OLED-XL

While the company's financial results are still not very impressive, they do report significant advances in their R&D programs, mainly for ultra high-brightness displays and direct-patterned panels. In the near term, they hope that new R&D projects will help them increase revenues. In the long term, they seem certain that the advantages of direct-emission displays will enable them to achieve design wins in future commercial wearable devices such as HMDs.

UK's SmartKem, a developer of high-performance organic backplanes for flexible displays, announced that they completed a 3 Euro million series A funding round from BASF Venture Capital, Octopus Investments, Entrepreneurs Fund and Finance Wales.

SmartKem plans to use those funds to further develop their organic material range and accelerate their technology towards commercialization.

When Samsung launched the Galaxy S5, DisplayMate tested the new display (a 5.1" FHD, 432 PPI, Super AMOLED) and found it to not only be the best mobile display ever tested at Displaymate, but also 27% more efficient than the 5" Full-HD one on the GS4. Samsung told DisplayMate that the improvement mostly came from more efficient OLED materials, but they never told us which materials exactly.

During a recent investors conference, Universal Display revealed that the GS5 uses their new red emitter material, and the company says that "Samsung attributes the increase in power efficiency" to the new emitter. This is rather surprising as I wouldn't have thought a new red emitter can effect the power efficiency of the whole display so dramatically.

LG recently launched their new 2014 55" curved FHD model (the 55EC9300) for $3,499 - but they also still offer the 2013 model. And today they lowered the price of the TV by a further $100, so you can now buy the 55EA9800 for $3,198. If prices keep falling so fast, it's likely we'll see a 55" OLED TV for less than $3,000 very soon.

LG will also soon launch a 65" 4K OLED, and this one will cost $6,999. Prices for OLED TVs have been lowered quickly - LG launched the 55EA9800 a year ago for $14,999. It's likely that once the M2 production line goes into mass production later this year prices will drop further for both the FHD and 4K panels.

Taiwan's AU Optronics has been struggling with AMOLED production for years now, but finally the company started mass production of two AMOLED panels: a 1.63" 320x320 panel for wearable devices (smart watches), a 4.3" 480x272 panel and a 4.97" 1280x720 panel. Towards the end of 2014, AUO will also release a 5.46" Full-HD panel.

This is great news for the OLED industry and for everyone who wants to adopt AMOLEDs in their products. Please contact us if you want to find a supplier for these OLEDs.

A couple of weeks ago LG launched the 55EC9300 55" curved FHD OLED TV in the US, and now Best Buy announced that the 2nd-gen 55" curved Full-HD OLED TV will ship on August 24th, for $3,499. Amazon also lists the TV for the same price, and will probably ship it soon as well.

When LG launched their earlier model, the 55EA9800, in June 2013, the price was $14,999 and the TV was only available in a few flagship Best Buy stores in their Magnolia high-end home theater departments. But this time, Best Buy will offer the new OLED TVs through over 1,000 stores, and also with regional chains and A/V dealers.