Nokia: OLED company spotlight - Page 3

Engadget posted a short hands-on review on the new Nokia N9. They claim that the display uses Nokia's Clear Black Display (CBD) technology - although Nokia's own press release never mentioned that. CBD adds a special filter on top of the display which blocks light reflection - and helps the AMOLED perform better outdoors.

In any case, Engadget say that the AMOLED display "is truly a sight to behold, with stunning viewing angles, a curved Gorilla Glass front, and some pretty excellent (for AMOLED) performance out in the sunlight... It's easily one of this new phone's great strengths".

T-Mobile now offers the Nokia Astound for free (with a contract of course). The Astound offers Symbian^3, a 3.5" 640x360 AMOLED display and a 8mp camera that can record 720p video. Other features include 8GB of memory, GPS and Wi-Fi.

LG Display released their quarterly results, and discussed their OLED program in the conference call. The company indeed started small AMOLED production at the end of Q1 2011, and are currently making 4,000 substrates a month (in a 4.5-Gen fab, which is about 500,000 3" displays). This will be increased to 12,000 a month by the middle of 2011. At the moment, LGD does not have more plans for capacity growth (for small-sized OLEDs). This confirms the earlier reports we heard in February.

LGD currently provide AMOLED panels to 'major global customers' (including Nokia, which was more of less confirmed in the conference call). In the middle of 2011 LG Display will also provide AMOLED screens to LG Electronics.

You can now order Nokia's E7 smartphone for $679 unlocked over a Amazon.com. The phone will start shipping on March 31st. The E7 is a QWERTY slider running the latest Symbian^3 OS. It has a 4" Clear-Black AMOLED (640x360), 8mp camera, 16MB flash memory, 720p video recording, FM radio, W-Fi and GPS.

Update: The Astound is now shipping - and it's actually free with a T-Mobile contract.

T-Mobile USA launched the Nokia Astound - a rebranded C7. The hardware is the same as the C7 but Nokia made some changes to the software - added a QWERTY keyboard with Swype and upgraded the browser. The Astound also has free Ovi Maps GPS with US, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean maps pre loaded. The Astound will start shipping on April 6 for $79.99 (with a contract, after rebate). If you don't want to wait, you can buy the C7 unlocked for $549.

The Nokia C7 is running on Symbian^3, and has a 3.5" 640x360 AMOLED display and a 8mp camera that can record 720p video. Other features include 8GB of memory, GPS and Wi-Fi.

Digitimes says that AMOLED display shipments reached 13.5 million in 3Q 2010 - up 132% compared to last year and up 65% from 2Q. In terms of revenue, AMOLED passed 10% of the total small display market (and reached 10.7%, up from 6.4% in 2Q).

Samsung Galaxy S

The success was driven by smart phone displays, mainly for Samsung and Nokia phones. 4" 480x800 AMOLEDs accounted for 81% of all AMOLEDs sold - 11 million units.

It seems that some Nokia N8 and C7 AMOLED displays are defective. The most common complaint (there are several actually) is that the screen has a purple tint in darker areas. It's not clear yet whether this is a software or a hardware issue. It is speculated that Nokia uses two kinds of displays - although it's unlikely as all AMOLEDs are made by Samsung.

In the photo above you can see the problem (on the phone on the left - the clock and button shouldn't be red!). Nokia hasn't officially recognized this issue, but it seems that more and more users complain.

Nokia starts shipping the E7 in several markets (they didn't say which ones), and Ukko Lappalainen, a senior official at Nokia, said that "The E7 is by far the most important model for us this year when looking at sales expectations". The E7 is a QWERTY slider running Symbian^3 and has a 4" Clear-Black AMOLED (640x360) display.

The E7 was supposed to start shipping on December 2010, but it was later delayed and only now starts shipping.

LG Display have started mass production of small AMOLED displays in their new Gen-4.5 line. The plant is currently producing 4,000 substrates a month (this will increase to 12,000 by the end of the year - which is about 1.5m 3" displays a month). This production line was announced back in April 2010 with a $225 million investment. A couple of weeks ago it was reported that Nokia will buy AMOLEDs from LG, and LG says it signed contracts with 3 other companies (besides Nokia and LG Electronics).

LG plans for the future are a big confusing. The company originally planned to build a Gen-5.5 OLED plant, but this has changed. The plan now is skip straight to a Gen-8 plant in early 2013 that will make large size panels for OLED TVs (the 2013 timeline for OLED TVs is consistent with earlier reports). The company could launch OLED TVs as early as the end of 2011 (or beginning of 2012) using the existing Gen-4.5 line, these will not be cost effective so it's not clear whether they'll actually do it.

Update: The E7 is now finally shipping!

Nokia announced today that they are accepting pre-orders for the E7 smart phone in Finland. The E7 was actually supposed to start shipping on December 2010, but was later delayed to 2011. The E7 is a QWERTY slider running Symbian^3 and has a 4" Clear-Black AMOLED (640x360) display.