Competing technologies - Page 18

Samsung Display is still struggling with technical issues in its large-area OLED TV program, and SDC's TV focus switched to quantum dots enhanced LCDs a couple of years ago. These TVs use the photoluminescence of QDs to enhance the white-light produced by the LED backlights.

But quantum dots also feature electroluminescence - which means that these materials can be used to directly emit light, in a similar way to OLED materials. This technology has several challenges to overcome before it can be mass produced though, but Digitimes Research now reports that Samsung is aiming to produce so-called Q-LED TVs by 2019.

UBI Research says that WOLED technology will lead the premium TV market from 2020 onwards. LCD will not be able to match the performance of OLED TVs at the high-end of the TV market, and solution-based OLED TVs and QD TVs will find it hard to penetrate the market as WOLED technology is one step ahead in commercialization.

According to UBI, in 2016 OLED TVs will grab a 16.7% share of the global premium TV market. In 2020, OLED TVs will lead that market with a 68.1% share.

Oculus has acquired InfiniLED, a Micro-LED display developer based in Ireland. Oculus did not say the amount of money it paid, but it did confirm the acquisition and said that the team joined Oculus Research in a new office dedicated to research in Cork.

Oculus is currently using dual 3.1" 1200x1080 VR AMOLED displays produced by SDC. This is an interesting acquisition which follows Apple's acqusition of Micro-LED developer LuxVue in 2014. There were some reports in June 2016 that Apple is looking to develop a Micro-LED display for future smartwatches, although this was not confirmed.

Sharp demonstrated a new display prototype called the Corner-R, which uses the company's Free-Form IGZO LCD panel to create a display with curved corners.

From the photo above, it seems like the display is also curved around the edges like Samsung's Edge-type OLEDs, but it may be just a curved glass, I am not sure. This is just a prototype demonstration, though, it's not clear whether Sharp intents to commercialize this display.

According to a report from the Korean ChosunBiz LG had plans to adopt a flexible edge-type display in its next flagship phone, the G6. But LG Display could not produce enough such displays as it does not have enough capacity - and the Korean company will adopt a flat LCD display.

LG Display has been developing flexible OLED display technologies for a long time, and back in January 2015 the company already demonstrated the prototype you see above - a 6" plastic OLED display that curves on both edges.

IHS estimates that the active-matrix small and medium display market will reach $43.4 billion in 2016, up slightly from 2015. This includes AMOLED, LCD and E Ink displays.

According to IHS, AMOLED revenues will reach $14.3 billion - surpassing a-Si LCD revenue ($14 billion) - and almost reaching LTPS LCD display revenues ($14.7 billion). a-Si LCD revenues are on the decline - and IHS sees a-Si LCD as a soon-to-be legacy display technology. AMOLED is expected to grow quickly, mostly due to demand for flexible OLEDs.

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DisplayMate posted a comprehensive review of the iPhone 7 display. The iPhone 7 has a 4.7" 1334 x 750 IPS LTPS LCD display, which DisplayMate say is truly impressive - and is the top performing mobile LCD display ever tested.

The iPhone 7's LCD also breaks several display records - including the highest absolute color accuracy, the most accurate image contrast and intensity scale, highest peak brightness for an average picture level and the lowest screen reflectance .

Yesterday Apple announced two new devices - the iPhone 7 (and 7 Plus) and the new Watch Series 2. The new Watch is Apple's 2nd-Generation smartwatch that has several improvements over the first generation - including a built-in GPS, waterproofing and better hardware.

We're mostly interested in the display, of course, and the Watch 2 display features the same size and resolution as the first generation - either 272x340 38mm or 312x390 42mm. The main improvement in the new display is that it is twice as bright at 1,000 nits (the original Watch's display had 450 nits).