LG launched its 2nd-gen curved OLED phone, the G Flex 2, in Korea. The G Flex 2 will be shipping by the end of January for 800,000 Won (about $740). This exciting new phone has a 5.5" Full-HD Flexible OLED on a plastic substrate, protected with a new glass cover developed by LG that is reportedly 20% stronger than the latest Gorilla Glass 3. The screen curves from top to bottom, with a curvature radius of 700 mm. The whole phone can be slightly bent.

The G Flex 2 has self-healing back coating, a Snapdragon 810 Octa-core 2Ghz CPU, 2GB of RAM, LTE, 16/32 GB of storage, 13 MP camera, fast-charging battery and Android 5.0 Lollipop. LG did not release any pricing information yet. The phone will be released in Korea by the end of January, and AT&T will carry it in the US.

Towards the end of 2014, it was reported that Samsung Display aims to lower the cost of their OLED displays, to be more competitive with LCDs (some suggested that Samsung aims to bring small-sized OLED cost below that of competing LCDs).

Now Digitimes reports that according to its sources Samsung indeed aims to close the gap between OLED and LCD pricing during 2015. In 2013 an AMOLED panel used to cost about $10-15 more than a competing LCD (they probably mean a 4" - 5" panel). In 2014 this shrunk to only $5.

A couple of days ago we reported that Amazon is now offering LG's 55EA9800 OLED TV (2013 model) for only $2,499, it's lowest price ever. Now LG also lowered the price of the 2014 model (the 55EC9300) - which is now at $2,799 only.

The 55EC9300 is a 55" curved FHD OLED TV. This is LG's upgrade to the 2013 55EA9800, and it features a faster refresh rate (240 Hz) and it seems to be brighter (500 cd/m² vs 350 cd/m²). LG also changed the TV's design (gone are the transparent canvas speakers, for example) and the TV is now based on LG's new smart TV platform (WebOS). The EC9300 weighs 14.38 Kg without the stand.

According to ETNews, AP Systems won a contract to supply two Excimer Laser Annealing (ELA) systems to China's Truly Semiconductors for its OLED fab. While ETNews does not mention it, this is likely to be used in Truly's upcoming 4.5-Gen AMOLED fab in Huizhou, China.

The contact is worth 18 billion Korean Won (about $16.6 million). AP Systems already provided similar systems to China's CSOT, GVO and EverDisplay. AP Systems hopes to also supply encapsulation systems to Truly in April 2015. The company is concentrating all of its efforts to develop OLED production equipment.

Amazon is now offering LG's 55EA9800 OLED TV (2013 model) for only $2,499, it's lowest price ever at Amazon.com. The EA9800 was replaced in 2014 by the 55EC9300 (which is now on sale for $2,999). Both TVs use a curved 55" Full-HD OLED panel.

Earlier this month LG announced their 2015 OLED TV lineup, so this 2013 model is two generations old. But it still offers one of the best images you can buy (besides LG's newest OLEDs, of course). In December 2014 I posted a review of LG's OLED TV.

Continental AG, a German automotive manufacturing company, demonstrates a new dual-screen flexible AMOLED solution for the automotive market. The screen is made from two smaller AMOLEDs, one concave and one convex and is aimed towards the secondary display of the car.

This is just a demonstrator by Continental, but as you can see in the video it is fully working. The displays are made either by LG Display (who already signed deals with Germany auto makers for the supply of flexilble OLEDs) or Samsung Display (who supplied Audi with a flexible OLED display for the Prologue prototype).

Universal Display and Sumitomo Chemical signed an OLED Technology License Agreement. UDC granted Sumitomo license rights to manufacture and sell solution-processed OLED lighting products. The agreement runs for the life of Universal Display’s relevant intellectual property rights.

Sumitomo aims to use UDC's technologies to increase the efficacy of their PLED lighting panels. The company will "explore business opportunities in lighting applications that take their printed polymer OLED technology to the next generation lighting.

During a lecture at Lighting Japan last week, Philips’ OLED head of production Wolfgang Doetter gave some insights on Philips OLED production and the general OLED lighting market of the near future. The conclusions from Wolfgang's lecture is that the OLED market is evolving rapidly and that process knowhow is the key to producing high quality OLED panels.

Wolfgang said during his speech that for producing reliable OLEDs one needs to master the processes and needs to be able to replicate them on a regular basis. Issues like on-plate layer thickness uniformity as well as plate-to-plate thickness uniformity or the ability to produce OLEDs to a defined color point are basically the issues any producer of OLEDs has to master in order to be able to maximize the production yield and reliably deliver high quality OLEDs.

Rumors are starting to circulate regarding Apple's next phone, and of course, as always, some of the rumors suggest an OLED display. With Apple finally adopting an OLED display for the Watch product, will they really use an OLED display in the next iPhone?

So first of all, the current rumors say that Apple approached Foxconn with a request to develop OLED technologies so it will be ready to mass produce them for the iPhone 7. It is reported that Apple aims to use a 5-inch 400 PPI panel, and some suggest that Apple is interested to use a flexible OLED display in a curved design.