Samsung Display - Page 67

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) unveiled its latest concept car, called the Chrysler Potal. This is an all-electric family-oriented minivan that is capable of semi-autonomous operation.

The Portal includes several new technologies for FCA, and the dashboard makes use of two large displays as you can see above. According to OLEDNet, both displays are AMOLED displays developed by Samsung Display - the top elongated one is a flexible plastic-based OLED while the lower one is a glass-based 12" AMOLED.

Samsung announced the Galaxy A-series family of fashionable phones. The 2017 editions all come with Super AMOLED displays, premium metal frame and 3D glass back.

There are three new A-series phones: the Galaxy A3 (4.7" 720p), the Galaxy A5 (5.2" FHD) and the Galaxy A7 (5.5" FHD). All three will ship towards the end of January in Russia - and later on globally.

Taiwan-based TrendForce says that HTC is the current leader in VR headsets - with a market share of 61.4% between April 2016 and November 2016, but the Taiwanese company will not be able to extend its lead into 2017 as it will be hit the hardest from the OLED market supply shortage.

According to TrendForce, in 2017 HTC will ship 600,000 Vive units, while Sony will ship 2.5 million PlayStation VR units and Oculus is expected to ship 1.2 million units. Other brands, all combined, will ship 800,000 units. All of these VR headsets use OLED displays.

A few days ago IHS said that they see the flexible display market reaching 139 million units in 2017 - an increase of 135% compared to 2016. IHS now reveals that in Q3 2016 SDC flexible AMOLED revenue reached over $1 billion for the first time ever.

According to IHS, SDC has a market share of 31.8% from the total display market, followed by Japan Display (15.4%) and LGD (13.1%). SDC's good performance was mostly accredit to its OLED business, and specifically its flexible OLED business.

Samsung is working on foldable displays for many years, as the company is looking to release a foldable phone that will be able to merge the phone and tablet markets (or possible a small phone that opens to a smartphone sized display). The company has recently accelerated its efforts, and such a phone may be released in 2017.

Foldable OLED concept (2013)

The main technology development drive is centered on the foldable OLED display itself - which is being developed for many years. According to a new report by ETNews, Samsung has decided to "test the waters" with a foldable phone that uses two different displays. This dual-screen phone will be easier to produce than a phone with a foldable OLED display. Of course the two displays, even if these are very thin-bezel ones, will still not merge to a real single display when the phone is open.

A display supplier based in China just reached out to us with a new clearance sale of Samsung's 3.26" 854x480 (300 PPI) AMOLED displays. It appears that there are about 20,000 such displays at very low prices - about a third of the normal asking price for these AMOLEDs.

These Samsung's 3.26" AMOLED panels are 80.56 x 47.16 in size (active area 72.16 x 40.56 mm) and 0.76 mm thick. The controller is Magnachip's D53E6EA8805. This is a great deal, and if anyone is looking for these panels, contact us to reach the supplier!

Around August 2016 we started hearing reports of a tight OLED supply and a shortage of AMOLED panels. Chinese mobile phone maker Oppo, for example, confirmed this shortage of AMOLED display panels for the R9 (also known as F1 Plus), and the company's president announced that Oppo will release an LCD variant called R9km.

According to some new information we have, some countries (including the Netherlands and France, and some parts of the US too) are experience a shortage of replacement OLED screens for Samsung's mobile phones. This is true for Samsung's most popular devices - and for both rigid (glass-based) and flexible OLED screens.

Digitimes says that Chinese smartphone makers are increasingly buying AMOLED panels in advance of new phone shipments as the industry expects the AMOLED supply shortage to continue well into 2017.

Apple is reportedly ordering a massive amount of AMOLED panels in advance of its 2017 iPhone launch, and the Chinese phone makers are worried that SDC's capacity will not be enough for 2017. SDC is hurrying to increase capacity, and several other AMOLED makers plan to start producing panels in 2017, but the expanded capacity may not be enough for 2017.

According to our (unverified) source, Samsung is set to acquire quantum dots developer QDVision for $70 million. Samsung is accelerating its quantum dot technology development, and according to some reports aims to produce QLED TVs by 2019.

It seems a rather low price for QD Vision - our source says that the company is low on cash, although QDV did raise $22 million exactly a year ago. QDVision also announced a new joint-development agreement with BASF for a QD-enhanced backlight and color filter for LCD displays.

Samsung announced that it began the global rollout of its latest smartwatch, the Gear S3. The Gear S3 is now available in Korea, and will start shipping in more countries (including the US, UK, Germany and Australia) on November 18.

The Gear S3 is a round Tizen-based smartwatch that features a round 1.3" 360x360 (278 PPI) full-color Always-On Super AMOLED display. Other features include IP68 water resistant, LTE connectivity, mobile payments and built-in speaker and GPS. The Gear S3 comes in two editions, Gear S3 frontier and classic.