November 2014

According to Android Authority, LG is aiming to launch a successor to the G Flex at CES 2015 (January 2015). According to the blog, the G Flex 2 will be a major upgrade with a higher-resolution plastic-based OLEDs and a smaller form factor. Reportedly it will be more flexible than the original G Flex.

This is interesting - earlier this month it was reported in an Israeli newspaper that LG Electronics is developing a mini-version of the curved G Flex phone. It will be great to see another flexible OLED phone from LG.

A few days ago we reported that Home Depot now offers two OLED luminaire families from Acuity Brands - with prices starting at $199. This is exciting these are the cheapest OLED luminaires ever on offer, and these are the first OLED lamps ever to be offered in such a retail channel - and we've got some more information from Acuity Brands.

Acuity reveals that the Aedan and Chalina were both designed exclusively for the Home Depot (even though the designs resembles two of Acuity Brands' own OLED Luminiares, the Nomi and the Revel). Those OLEDs are currently available at Home Depot's online store and also at their store in Woodstock Georgia (not sure if they have plans to intrdoduce it to more stores).

Yesterday LG Electronics launched a £3 million ($4.7 million USD) UK marketing campaign for its OLED TVs. The campaign includes TV, outdoor and digital ads and also in-store activities, and it will run till Christmas.

The campaign will include outdoor advertising at London’s Waterloo station from December 1-9, and will also include a competition to win a 55EC9300 (55" curved FHD) OLED TV.

Researchers at the Swedish Umea University have shown that if you place semiconductors polymers on a layer of graphene, they transport electrical charges more efficiently than when the polymers are placed on a silicon substrate.

This discovery means that graphene can enable more efficient charge transport in organic electronics such as OLEDs or OPVs.

Acuity Brands have been developing OLED luminaires since 2010, and have released several models commercially. Now Home Depot started offering some of the companies smaller OLED luminaires, with prices starting at $199.

Home Depot currently offers four OLED products from two families, the Aedan 2-panel lamps ($199, wall mount-sconce or pendant) and the 5-panel Chalina ($299, wall mount or pendant). These are probably the cheapest OLED luminaires available today, and it's great to see them retail at Home Depot!

TPVision (who owns the Philips brand for TVs) has been working on OLED TVs for a long time (we first reported on this in 2012), and now the company announced its plans to launch a Philips OLED TV in 2015. The company uses OLED panels supplied by LG Display (which also supplies OLEDs to Panasonic, Grundig, Changhong and Skyworth. And maybe Sony, too).

Grundig OLED TV prototype

According to a report from Holland, TPVision already showed a prototype OLED TV. The company planned to release this TV sooner, but had some major issues with the OLED panel - low brightness (compared to LCDs), uniformity issues and limited lifetime. TPV is developing its own image processing technology which will be used in their OLED TV and will solve those technical issues.

Update: Audi sent us some more details on the Prologue's OLED displays...

Audi unveiled a new concept two-door car, the Prologue, which marks a new design language for Audi, which will adopted in the German automaker next-generation cars. The Prologue uses a full-width OLED (made from three panels) dashboard instrument display, and another bendable OLED mounted at the case of the centre console:

Audi says that the bendable OLED is one of only 10 in existence, and the company informed me that Samsung Display is the OLED producer. 

MRAM developer Crocus Technology developed a new MRAM-based magnetic sensor that can be used to detect the shape and bendability of flexible displays. The idea is that you place a sensor every 5 cm or so (depending on the display size and bending radius) and this allows you to determine whether the display is bent and in which way.

A flexible sensor such as this can be used to correct the image that gets deformed when bent. It can also be used potentially for UI purposes - similar to Nokia's Kinetic prototype phone shown in 2011.

Quantum Dots enhanced LCDs are starting to enter the market, with reports saying that both LG and Samsung will release such TVs in 2015. Michael Grund, the managing director of Merck Korea, however, says that this technology will not have a significant impact on the global TV and display markets - unlike OLED which could be a game changer.

Quantum Dots are used to enhance the color gamut and efficiency of LCD displays. Sony already commercialized quantum-dots TVs and smaller panel display, as the QD-LCDs are far easier to produce compared to OLED TVs.

Samsung hosted an investors forum in NY a few days ago, and it is reported that much of Samsung's focus was on OLED technologies. As we already reported, Samsung Electronics announced that flexible OLED is one of its 3 areas of future growth (especially as they struggle to increase high-end mobile phone sales), and during the conference the company revealed some interesting information and prototypes.

Foldable OLED concept (2013)

So first up were two new foldable OLED prototypes - a 5.5" (WQXGA, 2048x1526, 464 PPI) panel that folds in half and a 10" tri-foldable AMOLED (Full-HD, 218 PPI).