Wearable OLEDs - Introduction and Latest Industry News - Page 22

Samsung announced today that the Gear VR (Innovator Edition) will arrive in the US next month. The Gear VR will cost $199 ($249 bundled with a Bluetooth gamepad). Of course you will also need a Galaxy Note 4 (with its 5.7" QHD Super AMOLED) to use this VR HMD.

Samsung's Gear VR is a Virtual Reality Headset (developed together with Oculus VR) that uses a Galaxy Note 4 for the screen, processor, sensors and audio.

OLED Microdisplay maker eMagin announced that it is developing a new VR head mounted display (HMD) that use the company's latest high resolution (2K by 2K) OLED microdisplays and patented optics. These two technologies will enable eMagin's HMD to be significantly smaller, lighter and higher in resolution than competing HMDs (such as the Oculus Rift one) that are based on cellphone-sized OLEDs.

eMagin seems to be very excited by the new HMD, which they currently term Immersive HMD, or IHMD (the company will conduct a contest to name the IHMD for the product launch) - saying that their non-traditional approach will achieve a "radically improved and unique form factor".

During a trade show in Korea, Samsung SDI unveiled a new rollable battery prototype, aimed towards wearable devices. Samsung says that this is the world's first rollable battery, and they expect to mass produce such batteries within the "next few years" as they still need to improve production yields and battery stability.

LG Chem is already producing curved batteries (these are used in LG's curved G Flex phone for example), and in October 2013 LG showed their bendable "cable" batteries which seem to be similar to Samsung's rollable ones. LG also said it will take some years to commercialize this technology.

ASUS announced that its AMOLED ZenWatch will launch in the US tomorrow (November 9th) for $199 via Best Buy. The Android Wear smartwatch will also be available through Google Play later on.

The ZenWatch features a 1.63" 320x320 AMOLED display, a 1.2 Ghz CPU, 512MB of RAM, 4GB of storage, heart rate sensor and a battery that should last over a day. According to my information, the AMOLED is made by AU Optronics - and this will be the first commercial product to use an AMOLED by AUO in years.

LG Display posted an interesting article explaining their plastic-based flexible OLED technologies and displays - showing how these displays are better than LCD displays in several aspects (mainly the fact that plastic OLEDs are thinner than LCDs and glass-based OLEDs). In addition, LG Display posted their flexible OLED roadmap:

As you can see, LG already produces flexible OLEDs for phones and wearable devices. In 2015-2016 the company sees flexible OLEDs being adopted in tablets and bendable phones. From 2017, LGD sees flexible OLEDs being used to produce foldable and rollable devices.

Last month LG released the G Watch R smartwatch in Korea (for 352,000 Won, or $330), and today AT&T started offering it in the US as well. The G Watch R costs $299 in AT&T's online store. The watch will also be available in Europe and other key markets soon.

The G Watch R uses a 1.3" (320x320) flexible plastic-based OLED panel, Android Wear OS, a 1.2 Ghz Snapdragon 400 CPU, 512MB of RAM and 4GB of storage. It has a 410 mAh battery which should last about a single day.

A little over a month since Samsung announced their latest smart watch, the Gear S, they now announced that it will arrive in the US on November 7th. The gear S will be offered on AT&T, Sprint, T-mobile, Verizon, Best Buy and other stores. AT&T will sell it for $200 (with a two-year contract). The watch will cost $350 on T-Mobile and $384 on Sprint.

The Gear S has a flexible (curved) 2" 360x480 (300 PPI) plastic-based Super AMOLED display and it includes a 3G chip so it doesn't have to be paired with a smartphone. Other features include Tizen OS, seven sensors (accelerometer, gyroscope, compass, heart rate, ambient light, UV and barometer) and a 300 mAh battery that should last for two days.

A few days ago LG released the G Watch R smartwatch in Korea (for 352,000 Won, or $330) and later announced their global rollout plan for the G Watch R - which will be available in Europe in the beginning of November, while key markets in North America, Asia and the CIS will get the watch "soon after".

AT&T now announced that it will be among the first carriers to offer LG's new watch. AT&T did not disclose how much will the watch cost, or when it will be actually available. 

In July we published an interview with EverDisplay's marketing team, in which they promised AMOLED mass production by the end of 2014. EDO already started shipping 5" 720p samples to potential customers, and the company also developed 5.5" and 6" panels.

A few days ago, during a conference in Shenzhen, Everdisplay gave a presentation in which they announced a new 1.63" 320x320 (277 PPI) AMOLED display panel for wearable applications, and they also showed a prototype panel. EDO told me that the plan is to start mass production of those panels in Q2 2015.

A couple of days ago LG released the G Watch R smartwatch in Korea (for 352,000 Won, or $330), and now LG Electronics announced their global rollout plan for the flexible OLED smartwatch.

The G Watch R will be available in Europe in the beginning of November, while key markets in North America, Asia and the CIS will get the watch "soon after". In some markets, the watch will be available on Google Play. Prices are still not disclosed. As we said the price in Korea is $330 - and you can't wait, you can buy the Korean version in Amazon.com now for $398.