February 2021

In October 2020 LG Electronics started shipping the world's first rollable OLED TV, the 65" 65RX OLED TV. The price is set at KRW 100 million (USD 87,000). That price was actually cheaper than expected - but according to a report from Korea LGE managed to sell only 10 such TVs.

According to the report, it's not just the high price that is keeping consumers away - the TV, which is based on rollable glass, is not very durable.

Researchers from the Helmholtz Center Berlin for Materials and Energy and the Physics Department of the Humboldt University Berlin, together with Oreltech, developed a new flexible OLED prototype that uses Oreltech's silver-inks to deposit electrodes on PET substrates.

The researchers report that the new device outperforms ITO-based devices in both efficiency and luminance - and they are offer better bending stability.

Ireland-based OLED IP company Solas OLED announced that it has filed a new patent infringement lawsuit in Germany against Samsung Electronics.

Solas did not disclose the exact patents related to this lawsuit, but the company says its patent portfolio "covers all critical areas of OLED structures, display design and architecture, and driver circuitry", and that Samsung is using the company's inventions in various devices, such as smartphones, watches and tablets.

LG Electronics announced it sold 2.04 million OLED TVs in 2020, the first time it passed the 2 million sales market. This represents a growth of 23.8% over 2019.

According to Omdia, LG Electroncis holds a 56% market share of the global OLED TV market. The average selling price of LG's OLED TVs was $1971.9, over four times higher than the average selling price of LCD TVs.

UK-based OTFT display backplane developer SmartKem has closed a $24.6 million private placement financing. Prior to the financing, the company also completed a reverse acquisition transaction with Parasol Investments Corporation (Parasol), a public Delaware corporation, whereby SmartKem became a wholly owned subsidiary of Parasol which later changed its name to SmartKem and will continue with the company's business as it is.

SmartKem says that the new financing will allow the company to continue and scale and expand the production of its ink material, its electrical design automation tools and its foundry services.

Last month we learned that LG Electronics is considering the future of its Smartphone business - which means LG could end up selling, closing or downsizing its mobile unit.

LG is developing a rollable smartphone, which was reportedly going to ship in early 2021. The future of this exciting rollable OLED device is not clear. Yesterday a report in Korea's Yonhap News suggested that the project is cancelled, although LG Electronics later denied this report and says that the company did not make any decision on 'future phone products' - which of course doesn't mean the project could indeed be cancelled or put on hold in the future.

In November 2020 it was reported that BOE did not pass Apple's OLED quality test for the iPhone 12. Later it was suggested that BOE did manage to enter Apple's supply chain, although perhaps only for aftermarket (refurbished models) panels.

According to new reports from China and Korea, BOE has been finally approved as a third OLED supplier (besides Samsung Display and LG Display) for Apple's iPhone 12 - the mini and standard models (and not the higher-end iPhone 12 Pro).

Sony's flagship 2021 Android OLED TV, the A90J, will start shipping on March 15th, starting at $2,999 for the 55" model. The A90J use LG's latest WOLED panels, with sizes of 55-, 65- and 83-inches. Sony says that the A90J is its brightest OLED TV ever.

The TV uses Sony's latest Cognitive Processor XR that provides the company's latest AI processor for an upgraded audio and visual experience. Other features includes HDMI 2.1, 4K 120Hz support, eARC, VRR and ALLM, Netflix Calibrated mode, HLG, HDR10, Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos and IMAX Enhanced support.

Korea's The Elec says that it has learned that Samsung display is developing in-folding OLED displays for Google, Xiaomi and Oppo.

Xiaomi, who has in the past shown prototypes that use Visionox out-folding displays, is now aiming to adopt an SDC in-folding display - 8.03" in size. The Elec says that the same phone will use a large 6.38-inch external display, which will be produced by both SDC CSoT.

DSCC published an interesting post that details the production costs of both WOLED and miniLED TV panels. So first of all, it details LG's current costs for producing OLED TVs, as you can see in the chart below. The costs of producing larger 77-inch and 8-3inch panels are significantly larger than the costs of 65-inch and smaller TV panels:

Interestingly, DSCC says that in 2020, the production costs in LG's Guangzhou fab was higher than the costs in LG's Korean OLED TV fab as the yields in Korea are higher - but this will change in 2021 as China has lower costs for depreciation, personnel and more. DSCC estimates that production costs for a 55-inch or 65-inch WOLED panel will be 14% lower in China than in Korea.