According to IDTechEx, the market for printed and flexible electronics in the automotive industry will grow from around $400 million in 2016 to over $5.5 billion in 2026. The market will be driven mostly by OLED technologies and in-mould electronics.

If we look at OLED specifically, the OLED automobile market will grow from around $150 million in 2016 to about $500 million in 2018. The OLED lighting market will still be small - only around $25 million in 2018. OLED displays will of course be much more popular.

According to Tractica, the market for VR headsets will grow quickly in the next few years, to reach over 76 million units shipped in 2020. Tractica says that this will mark the second VR market, and this time both the hardware makers and the content publishers are working to make sure they release appealing and fine-tuned products.

The VR market should be closely watched by OLED makers. This is one of those applications in which OLED displays have a clear advantage - and this time it is the fast response rate. LCD displays are simply not good enough - and so it is likely that most VR headset makers will adopt OLED displays.

Japan Display's research center chief, Akio Takimoto, says that JDI will begin producing OLED panels in 2018. JDI will take advantage of their advanced TFT technology as it aims to catch up with Samsung and LG.

JDI probably aims for 2018 following many reports that Apple aims to start adopting OLEDs in that year's iPhone models. Apple is reportedly already in talks with Samsung and LG as they need to secure a huge amount of production capacity - but it's likely that Apple will prefer teaming up with JDI over its Korean smartphone rivals.

According to HSBC, there's a great pressure under Samsung's smartphone business, and the Korean company will attempt to introduce their first foldable OLED smartphone in the second half of 2016. Samsung's earlier plan was to release it in 2017.

Foldable OLED concept (2013)

A foldable smartphone may prove to be a hugely popular device as it may merge two devices - such as a tablet and a phone or a phablet and a small phone. It may just be the differentiatior that Samsung has been seeking for years over Android rivals - and over Apple too of course. The first such device, however, may more be a technological demo than a real mass produced flagship phone.

Audi has yet to unveil the 2016 Audi TT RS coupe, but according to new reports the car will use OLED taillights. The Audi TT RS is a high-end car but is serially produced.

In fact, if this report is true, the 2016 TT RS will be the first serial-produced car with OLED lighting. In September 2015 BMW announced that they are starting to produce the M4 GTS at very limited quantities - and this car has OLED lighting too. But only 700 such cars will be produced.

Reports that Apple has decided to adopt OLEDs in the 2018 iPhone models has been around for a while, and most of them concluded the Apple will sign OLED supply agreements with both Samsung and LG. A new report from Taiwan suggests that Apple plans to invest in AU Optronics, and help it become a leading OLED producer.

AUO declined to comment on those rumors, but shares in the company jumped over 5% in Taiwan's stock exchange.

LG Display demonstrated several exciting OLED displays at CES 2016, and here's a nice video showing most of these displays - the 139" Vertical-Tiled OLED display, a concave OLED, transparent OLEDs and the 18" rollable display:

Sony canceled their OLED TV JV with Panasonic back in 2013, and since then the company is still developing OLED technologies, and is reportedly in talks with LGD to supply OLED panels - but currently the company is focused on LCD TVs. Sony says that they "haven't reached the full potential of LCDs".

At CES, Sony introduced a new technology that they call Backlight Master Drive (BMD) - which is a new backlighting system that improves the color and brightness of LCDs - and also enables LCDs to better support HDR content. BMD TVs can go up to 4,000 nits (!) - and special "software algorithms and intelligent local dimming" help improve contrast. Sony is specifically trying to compete with the image quality of LG's new OLED TVs.

Pioneer is demonstrating a very nice looking transparent OLED automotive brake system. The idea is to embed this unit in the vehicle's rear window - so it is transparent and allows for a greater field of view, but when you press the brakes it emits a bright red light:

The idea of embedding an OLED in the rear window is not new, but this is a nice implementation by Pioneer.

LGD has another interesting demonstration at CES - a 55" Full-HD transparent OLED. This is an WRGB OLED architecture that offers 600 nits of brightness and 40% transmittance.

It's not clear how close are LGD to commercialization. This is LG's largest transparent OLED ever demonstrated (in July 2014 LGD showed 18" transparent OLEDs).