Korean news site DDaily posted an interesting article that states that LG Display is looking to replace the fluorescent OLED emitter used in its OLED TVs with a blue TADF emitter.

Following the introduction into LG's OLED TV production process, LG hopes to also use TADF materials in its small and medium OLED production. The report is a bit confusing, but it seems that LGD also aims to use its WOLED display in small and medium display formats - even for VR applications.

IHS says that as production volumes of AMOLED panels increases the gap between OLEDs and LCDs narrow - in fact currently the price of a 5.5" HD AMOLED display ($12.1) is cheaper than an equivalent LTPS LCD ($12.2). The main cause of recent price reductions are lower depreciation costs and lower labor costs.

For higher-resolution displays, LCDs are still much cheaper than comparable OLEDs - IHS estimates that a 5.5" QHD LCD costs 30% less than a comparable AMOLED.

IHS says that AMOLED panel shipment will increase 63% in 2017, driven by strong demand from smartphone makers. Looking forward the AMOLED market will experience fast growth, as demand will rise for smartphones, TVs, VR HMDs and mobile PCs.

In 2017 the AMOLED market will reach $25.2 billion in revenues, up from about $15 billion in 2016. The OLED TV market will grow to 1.5 million units (up from from 890,000 units in 2016). Mobile display resolution continue to increase, and in 2017 68% of shipments will be of FHD, QHD and WQHD resolutions.

Today we published new versions of our market reports - that cover the flexible, transparent, VR/AR, microdisplays, automotive and graphene OLED markets. 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 July 2017.

The OLED for VR/AR Market Report:

• Why OLEDs are adopted in almost all VR HMDs
• What kind of displays are required for VR and AR applications
• What the future holds for the VR and AR markets
• Current and future VR and AR systems

The report package provides a great introduction to the emerging VR and AR market, and details the role that OLED displays will have. Read more here!

In a recent tradeshow ITRI demonstrated a new OLED lighting driver that can control different types of OLED panels, including rigid and flexible OLEDs. ITRI says that different OLEDs require different currents, but this driver can support all of the panels on display.

ITRI also demonstrated a new flexible lighting panel, which I believe has not been on display before.

The Korea Herald reports that Apple is in talks with LG Display to invest 2-3 trillion Won ($1.7-$2.6 billion USD) in LG's OLED production lines, in order to exclusively reserve some of LG's flexible OLED capacity.

The report says that the two firms already agreed on these investment plans, but the details (which includes the investment size and timing) have not been finalized yet. A couple of month ago we heard reports (originating from another Korean news outlet, Business Korea) that LGD is in talks with Apple.

Digital Trends posted that interesting flagship TV shootout, pitching LG's E7 OLED TV against Samsung's Q9 QLED TV. Both TVs offer great image quality, and both has their strengths and weaknesses - but Digital Trends says at the end of the day they prefer LG's OLED.

According to Digital Trends, pretty much everybody who looked at these two TVs stacked up against each other chose the LG as the best TV - if by a razor-thin margin. Credit is due to Samsung, who did manage to produce a very bright, sharp and great looking TV though.

Universal Display was recently awarded a new patent (USPTO #20170186976) that describes high electroluminescent efficiency TADF OLED emitter and host materials based on benzotriazoles.

It is very interesting to see UDC developing TADF material. The company is focused on phosphorescent based OLEDs but, as they explain in the patent application, "phosphorescent materials generally contain a rare metal element such as Ir or Pt. These metals are rather expensive and are dependent on limited global resources". TADF could also be a viable route towards an efficient blue emitter (blue-emission is specifically mentioned in UDC's new patent).