According to a report from Korea, when Apple secured its flexible AMOLED supply from Samsung for the iPhone X (and later XS and XS Plus) it committed to a minimum order quantity. As sales of the iPhones were slower than expected, the company did not reach its MOQ, and is now facing penalties of hundreds of millions of dollars.

It seems as if Apple is reluctant to pay the penalty (which isn't a big surprise) and is offering some alternative routes for Samsung - including the option of ordering OLED displays for future iPads or laptops (this coincides with a report from Korea last month).

At CES 2019, Alienware demonstrated a gaming monitor that uses a 55" 4K 120Hz OLED display. This monitor supports 4K at 120Hz using the new HDMI v2.1 connection (also supported by LG's latest 2019 OLED TVs).

Earlier this week we reported that Alienware has not plans to actually launch this product - but according to PCGamer, a Dell spokesman says that the company is definitely going to release it - at Q4 2019 in "selected markets". This is good news for many gamers who were looking forward to this exciting (but probably highly expensive) monitor.

The US Department of Energy (DoE) has granted $1.1 million to Penn State University professors Chris Giebink and Michael Hickner for a new project to increase the efficiency of OLED lighting panels.

The researchers, collaborating with OLEDWorks in this project (and previous ones as well), aim to find a way to lower the refractive index of the organic materials which will increase the external efficiency of OLED devices. The basic idea is to insert other molecules and blend them with the existing OLED materials which lower the refractive index without adversely affecting the properties of the original molecules.

In January 2017 Novaled started constructing its new €30 million fab and office headquarters buildings in Dresden, a renovated old mill turned into a prestigious office building and state-of-the-art OLED R&D laboratories which increase the company's R&D OLED deposition capacity by 40%.

Novaled now officially inaugurated its new headquarters, and released the nice video above showing the new offices, facilities and laboratories - including the 110 meter long R&D center with fully equipped chemical laboratories and ISO5 and ISO7 cleanrooms. We wish all our good friends at Novaled the best of luck in the new location!

China-based CSoT demonstrated a foldable OLED prototype at SID DisplayWeek 2019, I believe this is the first time the company has shown a foldable display.

CSoT recently started pilot production at its 6-Gen LTPS flexible AMOLED production line in Wuhan and the company already achieved some design wins with "top-class" phone makers and is expected to start shipping OLED displays to its customers in Q4 2019. The Wuhan fab will have a monthly production capacity of 45,000 6-Gen substrates.

In March 2017 Konica Minolta and Pioneer announced that the two companies are set to merge their OLED business unit, and on June 2017 the new 50:50 joint venture, called Konica Minolta Pioneer OLED, was officially established.

Pioneer was recently acquired by Hong Kong private equity firm Bearing Private Equity for $904 million, and the company is now trying to focus its business, and we learned that it has decided to quite the OLED lighting market. KMPO has been closed and all assets and employees were moved to Konica Minolta. This is quite sad news regarding Pioneer who's been active with OLED lighting for many years (see below).

Japan Display was supposed to get a $2.1 bailout deal led by Taiwan's TPK and the Harvest Group. TPK was supposed to invest $230 million, but the display maker announced that it decided not to invest in Japan Display after all. JDI also says that it has not yet received a positive commitment from other potential investors.

JDI did disclose that it approached Apple for help (JDI is a major LCD supplier to Apple) and Apple is considering to waive its debt, guarantee display orders and also invest around $185 million directly in JDI.

JD.com, a popular online retailer in China, says that sales of the OnePlus 7 Pro are more than ten times higher than the sales of Samsung's flagship Galaxy S10 Plus (which has a comparable display size). JD says that there were 250,372 OnePlus units sold - compared to only 23,266 GS10+ units.

The OnePlus 7 Pro is the company's flagship smartphone that features a large 6.67" 90Hz 1440x3120 Fluid AMOLED (which is apparently a 90Hz Super AMOLED) full-screen display with an under-the-display fingerprint sensor. The GS10+ sports a 6.4" 60Hz 3040x1440 (522 PPI) Super AMOLED display.

In March 2019 we reported that LG Display has delayed its plans for its $10 billion P10 10.5-Gen OLED TV fab in Paju, as the new larger deposition process was a larger challenge than expected.

According to a new report from Korea, LG display has actually started to install some of the Oxide-TFT deposition equipment (supplied by Applied Materials and Jusung Engineering) earlier than it first planned. LGD's original plan was to install this equipment in early 2020. The mass production at the P10 fab is expected to begin in 2021.

In February 2019 Huawei launched its first foldable smartphone, the Mate X with a 8" 2200x2480 foldable AMOLED display that folds outwards. Huawei said it will launch the Mate X by the end of June, but now the company says it is now planning to release it in September.

Huawei says that it needs more time to test the device and make sure it is durable. It is also possible that the US ban on Huawei is behind this decision.