The Korea Herald claims that LG Display is in the final stages of its discussions with Apple, and the Korean OLED maker expects to supply 15-16 million flexible OLEDs to Apple in 2018. According to the report, LG will supply Apple with 6.5" AMOLEDs for its 2018 large iPhone OLED variant.

Samsung Display will remain Apple's main OLED supplier, and this new report says that SDC will supply apple with more than 120 million 5.8" OLEDs in 2018. An earlier report by Business Korea estimated that SDC will supply Apple with 180-200 OLEDs in 2018.

Researchers from Korea's KAIST institute developed a technology to deposit OLED materials on thin fibers, ranging from 90 to 300 micrometers. The OLED on fibers had a luminance of 10,000 cd/m² and efficiency of 11 cd/A.

The researchers developed a unique OLED device architecture, which they say is more suitable for coating on fibers. The researchers also developed a "deep coating" process to deposit the OLEDs, which works under 105 degrees Celsius.

CLSA estimates that in 2017 Samsung Display produced 450 million OLED displays, and this will grow 26% in 2018 to reach 570 million units. Samsung's current capacity for flexible OLEDs is about 330-385.

Looking at the OLED TV market, CLSA expects it to continue its fast growth. Global OLED TV shipments will grow to 2.7 million units in 2018 (up from 1.6 million in 2017). LG Display is said to shift its focus to larger panel production (65-inch and 77-inch) so this may effect the number of panels produced.

Update: it turns out that LG will also release a 65" OLEDG8.

LG Electronics announced its 2018 OLED TV lineup. The company updated all of its models, except the OLEDG7 which will not get a successor in 2018. All the TVs are based on new a9 "intelligent processor" that promises better color and fast smart TV (webOS) operations - except the entry-level B8 which uses a scaled-down version of the chip.

The OLEDW8 will be LG's flagship TV for this year, a wallpaper design OLED TV which attaches to the wall using magnets - with a thin cable that connects to the sound bar and interface box. Like all the rest of the TVs, the W8 will support Google's Assistant for natural language control, Dolby Atmos, HDR and 4K HFR (120Hz).

In August 2011 Samsung signed a long-term license agreement with Universal Display which allowed Samsung to acquire and use UDC's patented phosphorescent OLED materials. That important agreement (which generated hundreds of millions in revenues for UDC over the years) expired on December 31, 2017.

UDC announced yesterday that it is in on-going discussions regarding a formal long-term extension of these agreements (the patent license agreement and the OLED material purchase agreement). UDC expects SDC to continue buying materials during these discussions. No time frame has been established for the completion of these discussions.

LG Display announced that it has developed the world's first 88-inch 8K (7680x4320) OLED display. LGD will demonstrate this at CES 2018 next week and it seems as if it aims to launch this as a product soon as it says this will expand its OLED product portfolio.

A couple of weeks ago it was reported that LGD indeed aims to focus on larger-area OLED TVs going forward. LG's current 77" OLEDs start at $9,999 (for the OLEDG7 model), and we can expect a 88" OLED to be much more expensive (a 88" TV has a 30% larger area than a 77", but yields will be lower and of course this is a high premium TV size).