LG Display established a new OLED division, to handle all its OLED development and production efforts under one organization. This new division, which will be led by LGD's CTO, Yeo Sang-deog, will also manage OLED panel marketing and sales.

At this stage, LG Display is mostly focused on OLED TV panel production and flexible OLED development. LGD's OLED TV panel sales increased 20X in 2014 compared to 2013, and with the upcoming M2 production fab which should start operation any day now, OLED TV capacity is expected to quadruple in 2015.

Taiwan's ITRI institute transferred its flexible substrate material technology (FlexUP) to a new spin-off startup called FlexUP Technologies, that will commercialize this technology for flexible displays and sensors. The FlexUP material can withstand high temperatures (which makes it well suited for the automotive and medical markets) and can be used in current production lines. ITRI says that FlexUP is expected to raise over NT$1 billion (over $32 million USD).

ITRI recently demonstrated several new AMOLED prototypes - a 6" full-color foldable OLED, a flexible AMOLED with integrated on-cell capacitive touch and a monochrome panel that can be tri-folded both in-wards and outwards (this is shown in the video above).

Samsung SDI and LG Chem are already developing bendable Li-Ion batteries, but Nokia is aiming higher: the company recently filed a patent for a graphene-based flexible transparent self-charging photon battery. This is still very early technology probably, and we're not sure if the company actually aims to commercialize it, but it's still exciting.

Nokia's battery design can regenerate itself immediately after discharge through continuous chemical reactions, without an external energy input - just from the humidity in the air). This could prove to be a truly energy autonomous device.

A UK-based star-up called R&D Core developed a new touch-display technology that is especially suited for flexible display. The company is collaborating with Plastic Logic to test the new technology.

SEL flexible touch-enabled OLED prototype

R&D Core's Digital Resistive Area Sensing (DRAS) is placed behind the display and responds to pressure. This has several advantages - it works with insulating materials (such as globes), it is less prone to breakage and it is more suitable for flexible displays. Last year we reported on similar technology from Peratech.

Stage Entertainment built a new theater in Hamburg, Germany, and they installed 460 Philips Lumiblade Brite FL300 OLED panels on the foyer in a beautiful installation done completely by Philips Lighting.

The square OLEDs are spanning the complete wall, and they are constantly changing their light output. Philips says that Stage Entertainment chose OLEDs because they proved to offer a much more even light output compared to LEDs. Interestingly the luminaries aren't flat against the wall, but still the whole instillation looks extremely good.

UK's SmartKem, a developer of high-performance organic backplanes for flexible displays, opened a new OTFT fabrication facility in Manchester. The company expands to support "significant customer product development agreements". SmartKem will also increase the size of its team by 30%.

SmartKem's new facility will enable its partners to co-develop flexible TDT-based products - in the display and sensor industries. The centre offers complete turn-key support for SmartKem's tru-FLEXTM technology platform, in addition to device modelling, device stack design and a complete TFT fabrication suite.

DisplaySearch posted an interesting flexible OLED market forecast. They say that in 2015, the market will grow almost nine-fold over 2014 - as new mobile phones and smart watches with flexible OLEDs (including Apple's Watch) hit the market.

Looking further into the future is more complicated as some of the mass-production technology isn't ready yet and demand is not clear. DisplaySearch has three different scenarios for the flexible OLED market. In their "likely" scenario, the market will grow at a CAGR of 119% from 2013 - and will reach over $20 billion in 2021.

A few weeks ago, LG Electronics in Israel were kind enough to send me a 55" curved OLED TV (the EA9800, or the 55EA970Y as it is called in Israel) for a review on OLED-Info. So first of all - thanks guys, that was very cool of you!

LG released this OLED TV back in August 2013. It's been reviewed repeatedly since, with one apparent conclusion: that this TV offers the best image quality ever! So to get it out of the way - yes, It really does! The TV, even to my non-professional eyes, offers a superb viewing experience. LG now offers even newer TVs (the 55’’ curved FHD 55EC9300 and the 65’’ 4K curved 65EC9700) that can supply a superior image quality, but sadly haven't yet arrived in Israel.

Amazon now lists LG's G Watch R, the circular Android Wear smartwatch with the flexible OLED display. The G Watch R costs $299 and is now shipping - and can be a great gift for the holiday season.

The G Watch R uses a 1.3" 320x320 (246 PPI) plastic-OLED panel, a 1.2 Ghz Snapdragon 400 CPU, 512MB of RAM and 4GB of storage. It has a 410 mAh battery which should last about a single day.

Korea's government announced its display R&D support plans for 2015, with a large focus on OLEDs and flexible displays. Korea's Evaluation Institute of Industrial Technology (KEIT) announced a budget of $11 million (more than double the 2014 budget).

LGD flexible OLED prototype

Core technology development (including takes up the bulk of the budget, and KEIT will also develop innovative product categories - including heat-resisting OLED materials for in-car displays, access materials for flexible display modules and mass refinement technology for organic materials.