LG's local supplier in Israel announced that it will bring LG's 77EG979Y (77EC9800) 77" 4K OLED TV to Israel in the second quarter of 2015. Interestingly, they reported that someone already bought this TV in Israel - and the cost was $38,800 (including taxes in Israel). This was LG's flagship TV in 2014, but in 2015 LG will launch an even better TV, the bendable 77" EG9900.

The 77EG9700 is a 77" curved UHD (4K, 3840x2160) OLED TV. This TV was first unveiled at the IFA 2013 exhibition. Features include LG's Color Refiner that results in superior color consistency and balance, High Dynamic Range (HDR), passive 3D FPR, LG's Tru-ULTRA HD Engine Pro that can upscale resolutions from SD to 4K and Motion Estimation Motion Compensation (MEMC). The TV also includes LG's newest Smart-TV platform.

OTI Lumionics received a $5.7 million CAD ($4.55 million USD) grant from the Canadian government to build an OLED lighting pilot production line in Canada. The company says that the new line will enable them to produce large flexible OLED lighting panels.

OTI unveiled their first OLED lighting product, the Aerelight desk lamp (shown above), in September 2014. It uses a single 1000 lux OLED lighting panel and costs $239. The lamp started shipping recently.

One year ago, Panasonic and Idemitsu Kosan dissolved their joint OLED Lighting company PIOL (established in 2011). It was then reported that Panasonic will withdraw completely form the OLED lighting market to focus solely on LED lighting.

Today IDTechEx posted an interview (which apparently took place a few months ago during the Printed Electronics USA trade show) with Panasonic's Professor Komoda, which says that Panasonic actually still has high hopes for OLED lighting, as it represents the best technology for diffused and flexible lighting solutions. Professor Komoda sees OLEDs "well accepted" within three years.

Japan-based Ason Technology unveiled their first OLED lighting panel in 2013, and last year we featured an article discussing the company's technology and business. In a recent interview to Sangyo-Times, the company's CEO reveals some interesting updates.

Ason spent almost eight years to develop a new multi-stack structure that can be used to create OLED with many layers, which results in long-lasting high-brightness panels. The company now reports that it developed an OLED with twelve (!) emitting layers, which enables it to reach a high brightness of 50,000 cd/m².

Sprint announced that it will start shipping LG's 2nd-gen flexible OLED phone, the G Flex 2, on March 13. Sprint will charge $504 (24 monthly payments of $21) - but a service plan is required. Preorders begin today.

The G Flex 2 uses a plastic-based flexible OLED display (5.5", Full-HD, 403 PPI) that curves from top to bottom, with a curvature radius of 700 mm. The G Flex 2 has self-healing back coating, a Snapdragon 810 Octacore 2Ghz CPU, 2GB of RAM, LTE, 16/32 GB of storage, 13 MP camera, fast-charging battery and Android 5.0 Lollipop. Yesterday Engadget posted their review of this phone, and they say it is a huge improvement over the original G Flex.

OLEDWorks and Universal Display signed an OLED technology license agreement. OLEDWorks was granted license rights to manufacture and sell phosphorescent OLED lighting products. OLEDWorks will pay UDC an upfront license fee and running royalties.

OLEDWorks, established in July 2010 by former Kodak OLED business experts, is a US-based OLED lighting maker (the only OLED lighting producer in the US). The company developed a proprietary low-cost production process. In 2013 the company successfully completed its Series A fund raising, and the company received three DoE grants (see here, here and here) to further develop is OLED technology.

UK's SmartKem, a developer of high-performance organic backplanes for flexible displays, signed a 3-year collaboration agreement with the UK CPI institute to support customer pre-production prototype development that use the company's tru-FLEX TFTs.

SmartKem recently completed a 3 million Euro series A funding round from BASF Venture Capital, Octopus Investments, Entrepreneurs Fund and Finance Wales. Towards the end of 2014 the company opened a new OTFT fabrication facility in Manchester, that will enable the company's partners to co-develop flexible OTFT-based products - in the display and sensor industries.

LG's 2nd-gen flexible OLED phone, the G Flex 2, has started shipping in Korea, and Engadget posted the first review of this interesting new phone - and they really like it. They say it has a stunning design, it offers good performance and it's a lot better than the original G Flex. Regarding the display, the reviewer says that it's very crisp and it offers deep blacks and punchy colors.

The G Flex 2 uses a plastic-based flexible OLED display (5.5", Full-HD, 403 PPI) 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 G Flex 2 has self-healing back coating, a Snapdragon 810 Octacore 2Ghz CPU, 2GB of RAM, LTE, 16/32 GB of storage, 13 MP camera, fast-charging battery and Android 5.0 Lollipop.

In September 2013, Veeco acquired Synos Technology for $185 million for the company's FAST-ALD flexible OLED encapsulation technology. Veeco later received a purchase order from SDC for a first-generation FAST-ALD prototype system. Veeco expected a manufacturing ramp to begin in 2014 - hoping to book more than $75 in ALD production systems by the end of the year, but this never happened.

Veeco now reported their financial results for Q4 2014, and while the company says they "successfully demonstrated its FAST-ALD technology for flexible OLED encapsulation", they currently do not see any near-term revenue coming from this sector.

Samsung Display and LG Display had been fighting over display patents for a long time - with lawsuits launched by both sides and even accusations of stolen prototype TVs. In 2013 two two Korean arch-rivals agreed to resolve their OLED dispute and they even considered cross-licensing patents and dropped all OLED lawsuits against each other. But settlement negotiation failed, and it seems that the OLED wars are far from over.

Now we hear that the Suwon District Public Prosecutor's Office indicted five Samsung Display officials - for violation of the unfair competition prevention and trade secret protection act. LGD says that Samsung employees obtained OLED secrets on the pretext of purchasing equipment.