Tag Archives: Smart Watch

LG’s G Watch and Google’s Moto360 watch with flat display in Q2 2014

March 19, 2014

Today both LG and Google announced their upcoming smart watch: LG’s is called G Watch with a rectangle flat display. Google’s is called Moto360 made by its Motorola Mobility division, (which will be acquired by Lenovo in the near future, but the acquirement is still not finalized yet.)

Figure: LG’s G watch and Google’s Moto360

LG G watchMoto360

Source: LG, Google

The Moto360 has a round flat display, which is unique. On the other side, LG’s G Watch has a common rectangle flat display. LG indicated they’ll announce the spec in a few months. As we covered before, LG has released G Flex mobile phone with a plastic curved AMOLED display in 2013. The fact that LG didn’t use a curved display on the watch is very strange, this indicated their curved AMOLED display capacity is still small, or yield is still low.

At Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2014, Samsung announced its newest wearable device: Gear Fit. It has a 1.84” super AMOLED display, with 432X128 pixel format. (Please note, some website said it is 1.4”, which is wrong).

Figure: Samsung Gear Fit with curved display

 gear fit

Source: Samsung, 2014

Samsung claims the Gear Fit is “the industry’s first curved, super AMOLED wearable device”. I think that is correct.

As Touch Display Research reported in our “Flexible and curved display technologies and market forecast” report, we believe flexible and curved displays are more ergonomic for the wrist, and larger-sized flexible displays could fit better and show more information. The Gear Fit is what a smart watch should look like.

Touch Display Research forecasts 30 million units flexible and curved displays will be shipped for smart watch application by 2023.

Thanks for reading,

Jennifer and team

Fitbit wristband lover

February 15, 2014

This morning, I was reading Wall Street Journal and laughing. I must share with my readers.

Today’s Wall Street Journal reported that Fitbit’s new wristband–Force band causes skin rashes after user wears it for several days or weeks. A user “loved his Fitbit Force so much that when red bumps began to appear on his wrist in early February, he moved it to his other wrist. Four days later, he had rashes on both wrists, he said.”

Sometimes, we love someone or something so much, we can put up with it. The Force’s display is only 0.7 inch, the smallest among the recent released smart wearable devices. We recommend Fitbit to use a bigger and curved display on the next generation wristband. Touch Display Research forecasts 30 million units flexible and curved displays will be shipped for smart watch application by 2023.

Thanks for reading,

Jennifer and team

Apple curved OLED display potential suppliers

October 3, 2013

This week Korea news chosun.com reported a rumor that Apple’s iWatch will adopt a “plastic OLED”. It quoted an “industry source” said “Apple is developing three different models of the iWatch — a 1.3-inch, 1.4-inch and 1.5-inch prototype”.

Back in June 2013, Touch Display Research has forecasted that Apple will adopt AMOLED within 18 months.

Some of our industry friends asked me which company might be supplying plastic OLED to Apple.   It is very challenge to get Apple’s insider information, but Touch Display Research believes that 7 companies could be the potential suppliers of flexible curved OLED display: Samsung Display Corp, LG Display, Futaba, AUO, Innolux, Sharp, NVO, etc.

Figure. Potential Suppliers of Flexible and Curved OLED Displays

flexible curved OLED suppliers

Source: Touch Display Research, Flexible and curved display technologies and market forecast, September, 2013

As we covered last week, Samsung has announced to release a mobile phone with curved displays in October 2013. Here are the possibilities for Samsung’s curved display technologies.

Touch Display Research believes the eco-system for flexible and curved displays is maturing. We forecast that the flexible and curved display market will reach $27 Billion by 2023, which is about 16% market share of the global display revenue in 2023. More analysis of curved display and curved touch panel can be found in our newly published Flexible and Curved Display Technologies and Market Forecast 2013 report.

Thanks for reading,

Jennifer and team