LG Chem - Page 6

Alkilu was established in 2013 with an aim to develop innovative consumer OLED lighting products, and the company unveiled their low cost OLED products at CES 2014, with aims to release them later in 2014. They are still not shipping OLEDs yet (despite accepting pre-orders on their web site since June).

Some Alkilu products (for example the Trio OLED Light shown above) us OLED panels made by LG Chem - which is also a marketing partner. Alkilu now announced that it signed a formal partnership with Visionox for OLED panel supply. Going forward, Alkilu plans to offer devices that use panels from both companies. Alkilu will buy the larger OLED panels from LG Chem, while the smaller ones will come from Visionox. The Visionox panels will be custom-designed and will offer some color variations.

LG Chem announced it developed new OLED lighting panels that features 100 lm/W and a lifetime of 40,000 hours. The plan is to release these panels towards the end of 2014. It's not clear, but it's likely that LG Chem aims to replace all current 60 lm/W OLED panels with the new 100 lm/W ones.

According to reports from Korea, LG Chem claims that their OLED panels will be available at lower prices compared to LED lighting. I'm guessing this is more of a "forward looking" statement as OLED panels are still very expensive, even after LG's plan to cut OLED prices by about 60% in Q3 2014 (from about $600/Klm to about $200/Klm).

Will OLED lighting save the world? LG Chem seems to think so, or at least they do according to this promotional OLED video they released last month:

Besides being funny (weird?), this video sends out the current marketing message that is being used by several OLED lighting companies - of how OLED lighting provides the most natural light.

IVAAIU, a Korean architectural design firm has applied OLED lighting panels (made by LG Chem) to a traditional Korean Hanok house. OLEDs were chosen because they offer excellent light quality (no UV, high CRI, no glare) and can be installed while maintaining the buildings as is.

LG Chem tells us that they are currently seeking additional partnerships to further demonstrate the benefits that OLED lighting can bring to traditional architecture and heritage projects. It is great to see that OLED lighting can be used in such traditional settings - as it's actually the most natural light source currently in use.

LG announced their first-gen Android Wear smartwatch (the G Watch, which uses an LCD display) in March 2014, and the company is already reportedly getting ready to release the 2nd gen smartwatch next month during the IFA 2014 trade-show.

LG G Watch

According to Korea Times, the new G Watch 2 will adopt an OLED display, produced by LG Display. If this is true, it's highly likely that this is a flexible OLED. After all, LG Display does not produce non-flexible small OLED panels.

Korea's Ministry Of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) is launching a new OLED lighting industry support fund, with plans to invest 22 billion Won ($21.5 million) over the next five years. The project will kick start at the end of September 2014.

The new initiative is called OLED Lighting Industry Cluster Construction Business, and the MOTIE aims to help local companies kick start manufacturing processes, prototype production, standard and measurement systems, help with a comprehensive information network and marketing support, and more.

Three weeks ago, Seeking Alpha published my first article on Universal Display, titled "Universal Display: 20X Jackpot In 2018?" - in which I presented my best-case scenario for the OLED market (and UDC) in 2018.

I think the article was received well, and today SA published my second article - "Universal Display's Second Key Customer Is On Its Way". In this new article I explain why Samsung Display is such an important customer for UDC - and how I expect in that in the coming years UDC will diversity its key customer base as I expect LG Display, Konica Minolta, Everdisplay, BOE, Philips and LG Chem to start mass producing OLEDs soon.

LG Chem just published a nice video showcasing the company's OLED booth at the LightFair 2014 tradeshow. The video showcases LG Chem's latest OLED panels, including the world's largest panel (320x320 mm) and their flexible and upcoming bendable panels, too:

The May Design Series furnishing fair chose London-based design house AB Rogers Design to design the exhibit hall. As part of that exhibition, AB Rogers installed a beautiful OLED setup called the OLED Tree Bar. AB Rogers used dozens of LG Chem circular OLED panels in a very simple installation to show how OLEDs enhance the design freedom and can be used to integrate light into any design.

The OLED panels were attached to piano wire rods by standard adhesive tapes, the cables were connected to a power driver, then the driver was plugged in. That was the whole setup. The bar design was based on the notion of sustainability, especially considering that the installations were to be torn down after the exhibition. The basic bar structure was comprised of recyclable cardboard tubes.

According to UBI Research, the AMOLED market reach $2.3 billion in Q1 2014, up 42% from Q4 2013 (which was a soft quarter, 36% lower than Q3 2013). Samsung Display is still of course the major AMOLED producer.

LGD's market share was only 2% - producing flexible OLEDs and 55" OLED TV panels. But UBI expects LGD's market share to expand gradually. UBI says that LGD sold 50% more OLED TVs in the quarter compared to Q4 2013 (this is by revenue, which means that shipments almost doubled as the price keeps dropping). UBI expects LGD's OLED TV sales to grow by more than 60% in Q2 2014 as Chinese TV start marketing TVs with LGD's OLED panels, and LG Electronics expand OLED TV sales to more countries.