Japan Display (the new small/medium display maker that merged Sony, Hitachi and Toshiba's businesses) announced that it plans to start mass producing OLED displays for smartphones. First panel samples are expected by March 2013. In order to have an edge over Samsung, JD aims to achieve over 300 ppi and develop panels that are more efficient than Samsung's OLEDs. Analysts suggest that JD will try to secure Apple as a customer for their OLED panels.
Back in November there were reports that JD plans to accelerate OLED mass production with a $1.3 billion investment in OLED R&D (which probably includes pilot production plants), and later on invest a further $1.4 billion towards mass production. It was suggested that JD may convert their Mobara LCD plant (bought from Panasonic) to LTPS and later to AMOLED production.
Back in September, when Japan Display was just formed, representatives from Sony, Hitachi and Toshiba said that they certainly consider OLEDs to be the 'core technology' of the next generation small size and medium size displays, and will invest in OLED R&D. It's good to hear that now they are accelerating those plans.
