December 2014

Today we published new versions of our OLED market reports. OLED-Info provides comprehensive niche OLED market reports, and our reports cover everything you need to know about the niche market, and can be useful if you want to understand how the OLED industry works and what this technology can provide for your own industry. The reports are now updated to the end of 2014.

The Flexible OLED Market Report:

• Why flexible displays and lighting panels are so exciting
• What kind of flexible displays are currently on the market
• What the future holds for flexible OLEDs
• How to acquire flexible OLEDs for your products

The report package provudes a good introduction to the flexible OLED market - present and future. It details both flexible displays and lighting technologies. Read more here!

Ink-jet printing is one of the great promises of OLED technology. Everybody hopes that using soluble OLEDs and a printing process could cut OLED production costs, and result in cheaper displays. In fact ink-jet printing may bring us high-quality OLED TVs that cost less than LCDs. Don't miss our new article that gives an introduction to OLED ink-jet printing.

According to an interesting market report from ETNews, LG Eelctronics is developing a smartphone with a bendable display. This technology will be similar to the bendable OLED TV prototypes we've seen, so you could press a button to change the phone from a curved state to a flat state. LGE has reportedly filed for a US patent describing such a system.

LG G Flex

ETNews says that this phone will actually be released very soon, and will be called the G Flex 2. We heard reports before that the G Flex 2 will be launched next month at CES 2015. I'm a bit skeptical that this will be a bendbale phone, as it seems a bit too early for a bendbale phone, but I wouldn't mind a good surprise from LGE!

The MHL and Wi-Fi Alliance websites published a list of upcoming products in 2015, and there are several new LG OLED TV models in there, in 55", 65" and 77" sizes. All the OLED TVs from LG in the past year has been curved, and LG did not release a flat OLED TV since the Gallery OLED TV in September 2013, but this may change soon.

The new models include the 65EG990V/65EG9900, 77EG990V/77EG9900, 65EF980V/65EF9800 - all likely to be 4K models - the EG9900 (in 65" and 77" models) will likely be the successors to the current 65" and 77" 4K curved models (the 65EC9700 and the 77EC9800) in the US (the EG990V is the equivalent model in the UK).

2014 will soon be over - and it's been a very interesting year for the OLED industry. OLEDs are emerging as the best technology for TVs, tablets, wearables, lighting and other applications. Here are the top 10 stories posted on OLED-Info in 2014, ranked by popularity (i.e. how many people read the story):

1. LG Display explains why a curved TV is preferable to a flat one (Mar 6)
2. Where are the OLED monitors and OLED laptops? (Aug 18)
3. Konica Minolta to build a flexible OLED lighting R2R fab with a monthly capacity of 1 million panels (Mar 18)
4. CES Aftermath: is LG taking the lead in OLED TVs? (Jan 13)
5. LG to ship their 77" curved 4K OLED TV by Q2 2014 for $29,999 (Jan 7)
6. LG launches 77", 65" and 55" 4K and FHD OLED TVs in Korea (Mar 13)
7. LG Display details their flexible OLED process, expects the flexible OLED market to reach $41 billion by 2020 (Feb 10)
8. Panasonic shows 55" curved OLED TV prototypes at CES 2014 (Jan 8)
9. Philips says OLED is ready for the general lighting market (Jan 19)
10. Hands on with LG's G Flex plastic OLED flexible phone (Mar 24)

As you can see, the list is dominated by stories about LG's OLED TVs - and this is not a large surprise. Interestingly, Samsung's name is missing in that list. Hopefully LG will continue their OLED push and we'll see Samsung and other companies join them and release more OLED TV panels to the market.

Researchers from UC Berkeley developed a pulse oximeter sensor that is made entirely from organic optoelectronics. The flexible oximeter can measure arterial oxygen saturation and heart rate, and performs as well as silicon-based pulse oximeters.

The sensor is made from red and green flexible OLED lighting devices and an organic photodiode (OPD). Unlike regular devices, this new organic sensor device is thin, flexible and (theoretically) cheap.

Garmin's Vivosmart is the second device (after Huawai's TalkBand) to use Futaba's flexible (conformable) PMOLED displays. We're happy to post this hands-on review of one of the first flexible OLED devices on the market...

The Garmin Vivosmart

Garmin defines the Vivosmart as an "activity tracker plus smart notifications", which is really to say "an almost-smartwatch fitness band". Which it is. The Vivosmart is indeed a fitness band that can display steps, calories, distance and all the other fitness staples. On top of that, it can also perform basic smartwatch tasks like receive vibration alerts for phone calls, text messages and emails. How well does it do all those things? We'll get to that.

Some people like their TVs flat, and some like them curved. A curved TV has several image quality advantages, but they look less nice mounted on your wall. A bendable TV offers the best of both worlds - you can hang it flat on the wall, and curve it when you want. Don't miss our new article on bendable OLED TVs - which according to LG will arrive on the market next year.

A few days ago LG announced it was going to unveil Quantum-Dots enhanced 4K LCDs next month, which made some people wonder whether LG will abandon its OLED TV program - even though LG repeatedly stated that OLED is the future display technology of choice and that those QDs TVs will be positioned above LG's current high-end Ultra HD LCDs but below the company's OLED TV range.

Probably in response to those speculations, LG Display posted a new article that explains how OLEDs are indeed superior to QD-enhanced LCDs (they call them QD TVs).

Wearable devices are adopting flexible and transparent OLEDs. OLED panels allow for new possibilities for this growing market: light weight, power efficiency, thin form factor and new design options. Don't miss our new article covering the OLED wearable market!