Samsung Display - Page 63

According to Taiwan's Digitimes, LG Display is facing delays in flexible OLED production at its $900 million E5 line in Gumi that should have started producing panels last month, but now it is expected to start mass production in August.

In April 2017 it was reported that LG Display has secured a 5.5" flexible OLED supply deal to China-based Xiaomi, for the company's next-gen flagship phone. According to Digitimes, however, LGD now lost this supply deal and Xiaomi has ordered over 3 million flexible OLEDs (6" QHD ones) from Samsung, who will supply the displays in December 2017 and January 2018. Xiaomi will have to delay the launch of its flagship phone to early 2018.

Digital Trends posted that interesting flagship TV shootout, pitching LG's E7 OLED TV against Samsung's Q9 QLED TV. Both TVs offer great image quality, and both has their strengths and weaknesses - but Digital Trends says at the end of the day they prefer LG's OLED.

According to Digital Trends, pretty much everybody who looked at these two TVs stacked up against each other chose the LG as the best TV - if by a razor-thin margin. Credit is due to Samsung, who did manage to produce a very bright, sharp and great looking TV though.

According to reports from Korea, Samsung Display is considering a new OLED plant, that will include two different building in Choenan and Asan. This fab will be Samsung's largest OLED fab yet (and the world's largest, really) - with a monthly capacity of 180,000 to 270,000 6-Gen substrates. Samsung's current largest fab, the A3, will have a monthly capacity of 135,000 substrates when the current expansion phase ends later this year.

This plan has not been approved yet, but it seems like Samsung has already informed of the plans to its key equipment suppliers. The investment in this fab will be large, the buildings alone will cost $1.75 billion. Samsung plans to start operating the fab in 2019.

Digitimes reports that Apple will only be able to ship a very limited number of OLED iPhones following the expected launch in September, as SDC's capacity will be limited to about 3-4 million flexible OLED displays.

Apple goal is to ship 50-60 million OLED iPhones in 2017, and have signed a supply agreement with SDC to supply these displays (some estimate that SDC promised to ship 80 million OLEDs in 2017 alone). But SDC still struggles with low yields for these specific OLED displays and will not be able to produce so many displays in time.

According to a report from Korea, Samsung is developing its next-generation Gear VR headset, which will include a built-in display (unlike current models which require you to insert your Galaxy smartphone into the device).

The report claims that Samsung will adopt a new OLED display in this device - which will achieve a pixel density of 2,000 PPI. Such a high pixel density will be great for VR as it will improve the realism and reduce sickness.

According to ET News, Japan's Dai Nippon Printing (DNP) has terminated Samsung's exclusivity for the company's fine metal masks (FMM) products. DNP is now offering its masks to other OLED makers, and have already signed up BOE Display as a customer.

DNP has advanced its FMM technology, and is now able to produce masks with high resolution - enough to create QHD (2560x1440) smartphone displays. BOE's current masks only enable it to produce FHD OLEDs, and it will now upgrade its production to higher-end displays using DNP's masks.

In April Korean press ran stories that Samsung has started construction of its A4 flexible OLED fab, which was later denied by Samsung. The Korea Economic Daily now states that Samsung is now ready to start construction, which was confirmed apparently by the Asan city government which is expected to approve the plans by July.

Samsung's A4 line will be, according to the report, another 6-Gen fab, similar to its A3 fab which is already in mass production. The A4 will have a monthly capacity of 60,000 substrates (other reports suggest that full capacity will be 135,000 substrates - similar to the A3 line). The A4 is expected to start mass producing panels in 2019. Total cost for this fab is estimated at $7 billion to $11.5 billion.

Samsung started shipping its Galaxy Book 12" - for $1,125 (4GB RAM, 128GB storage) or $1,325 (8GB RAM, 256GB storage). The Galaxy Book 12" is a Windows 10 professional tablet that features a 12" 2160x1440 Super AMOLED display, an intel i5 CPU, 4/8GB of RAM and 128/256 GB of storage.

ETNews reports that Samsung Display is expected to initiate flexible OLED production for Apple's first OLED iPhone later this month. Apple recently approved the prototype panels, and Samsung is getting ready to increase its production rate.

SDC will ship over 10 million flexible OLEDs to Apple every month, as Apple ordered over 80 million OLEDs for 2017 alone. According to ETNews, Apple will not bend the flexible OLED - the iPhone's display will be flat.

Samsung's latest flagship phones, the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ are apparently selling very well - Samsung revealed that it sold more than one million S8 in South Korea, only 37 days after the official launch - it took the Galaxy S7 74 days to achieve the same feat.

Samsung further says that global shipments exceeded 10 million units already.