Category Archives: Flexible curved display

SID 2015 Monday Seminar: from mainstream to emerging display

June 6, 2015

SID 2015 DisplayWeek is held in San Jose, California this week. I taught a seminar on Monday morning, titled “Display Market Forecast –LCD, OLED, e-paper and touch, from main stream to emerging display”.

When I arrived the seminar location at 8:15am, (15 minutes before it starts), the room is full of attendees already. I first listed the hot trends in display industry in 2015 and 2016. Then I provided the global display industry market forecast from 2015 to 2025. The overall display industry growth is slowing down but there are hot trends in many areas. The new opportunities in display market include:  quantum dot display, flexible and curved LCD display, high resolution, OLED display, e-paper display, embedded touch screens.

Figure: Dr. Jennifer Colegrove taught Monday Seminar at SID 2015 DisplayWeek.

Jenny SID 2015 seminar

Photo credit: Ogawa-san at Japan Display Inc.

More and more people joined the seminar, many of them had to stand for the one and half an hour seminar. (I feel grateful and honored.) From the questions the attendee asked at the Q&A session, many people are interested in 3 areas: quantum dot, high resolution, flexible display, touch screen.

More analysis can be found in the “Quantum dot 2015 report”, “Flexible, curved and foldable display 2015 report”, Touch and Emerging Display monthly report, June 2015 issue.

Thanks for reading,

Jennifer and team

TDR accurately forecasted 4K OLED TV available time

April 16, 2015

LG has been demonstrating its 65” 4K OLED TV since CES 2014 and had road tour promotions since October 2014 in many cities worldwide. However, it is until Q1 2015, the LG 65” 4K OLED TV is available in the US market. The 65” 4K OLED TV 65EG9600 is selling for $9000 currently. Another similar model is selling for $12000 currently. LG’s website also indicated the 77” 4K OLED TV is coming soon.

Figure: LG 65” 4K OLED TV

LG 4K oLED girl

Source: LG

Over two years ago, on Jan 25, 2013 press release, we announced that “Touch Display Research forecast Ultra HD (4K) resolution AMOLED TV will be on the market by 2015”. “Although AMOLED with FHD resolution is available currently, 4K is considered the high end for TV resolution, even though 4K content is still limited,” said Dr. Jennifer Colegrove, President and analyst at Touch Display Research. “56-inch 4K resolution is just 79 ppi (pixel per inch), which is easily achievable. The challenges are how to increase yield, have good uniformity, have long lifetime, and reduce the manufacturing cost.”

Now with LG’s 65” 4K OLED TV commercially available, our forecast becomes reality in 2 years.

Figure: We accurately forecasted 4K OLED TV available time

we accuratly forecast 4K OLED TV

Source: Touch Display Research Inc. April 2015

Over a year ago, in the “Touch and Emerging Display report”, June 2013 issue, page 45, we forecasted “Apple will adopt AMOLED within 18 months”.

Now with the Apple Watch announced, our forecast becomes reality in 18 months.

Touch Display Research has a good reputation of accurate forecast. In January 2013, Touch Display Research gave a presentation at the SID Bay Area one-day conference, we forecasted “Samsung will release curved AMOLED on a device that is larger than 5” by end of 2013.” (SID Information Display chief editor Stephen Atwood wrote about our forecast in his article in Information Display Journal March 2013 issue.)

In October 2013, Samsung announced the Galaxy Round with curved AMOLED display. One month later, LG also announced the G Flex. Our forecast became reality in 9 months.

Sorry about tooting our own horn, but these are the facts. We are good at OLED forecast.

Thanks for reading,

Jennifer and team

2015 FLEX conference review

February 27, 2015

I just came back from the 2015 FLEX conference in Monterey California. There were about 600 attendees this year, a little more than last year. It was great to meet some of you in person.

At 2015 FLEX conference, Professor HK Chung from Sungkyunkwan University in Korea gave a keynote presentation titled “Plastic Revolution”.

Professor Chung first introduced the history of flexible AMOLED and his work at Samsung when he was the VP there.  Then he discussed the challenges of flexible OLED. He indicated, “I used to say LCD is a dumb display. Now I had to say LCD is very smart, you only need to change the backlight, add quantum dot to get vivid pictures, you don’t need to change much in the front plane.”

Figure. SKK University Professor HK Chung giving presentation

HK Chung

Photo by: Jennifer Colegrove, Feb 2015.

At 2015 FLEX conference, on behalf of Touch Display Research, I gave a presentation titled “Touchless bio sensor technologies and market forecast”. I discussed the market of gesture control, voice command, eye tracking, proximity touch and human motion sensors.

Figure. Touch Display Research Dr. Colegrove giving presentation

Jenny 2015 flex

Photo by: Ms. Stoeva, Brewer Science, Feb 2015.

Sensors and wearables are hot topics at this year’s FLEX conference.  More reviews can be found in the Touch and Emerging Display monthly report, February issue and March issue.

Thanks for reading,

Jennifer and team

LG OLED TV Silicon Valley event

Aug 27, 2014
Yesterday, we were invited and attended LG Electronics’ OLED TV event in Silicon Valley, California. It’s a good event to meet with LG’s OLED TV people and networking with other analysts and media.
LG demonstrated two curved 55” OLED TVs, the new 2014 model: 55EC9300, which is just become available in BestBuy stores in US this week. You can buy it now for $3499, that is only 23% of last year’s OLED TV price!
LG put the curved OLED TVs side by side with two curved 55” 4K LED backlight LCD TVs from Samsung.

Figure. LG’s OLED TV event
LG OLED TV thin
Photo by: Touch Display Research Inc., August 2014

LG also indicated their 4K OLED TV is coming soon to US market. (We had detail analysis of 4K OLED TV in our “Touch and Emerging Display” January 2014 report.)
We discussed with LG’s managers about the power consumption and the OLED TV in China market. More pictures and analysis will be found in our “Touch and Emerging Display” September 2014 report.

Thanks for reading,
Jennifer and team

Kent Displays’ successful story

May 16, 2014
I’m traveling in northern Ohio this week to speak at the FlexTech Alliance workshop. It’s good to be back in Ohio, since I got my Ph.D. from Kent State University in Ohio 14 years ago. Ohio is like my second home.
Kent Displays invited me to visit them during this trip. Right when I entered Kent Displays’ company lobby, there is a digital signage in the lobby, showing the message, “Welcome, Jennifer Colegrove, Enjoy your day.” I felt very special and took a picture of it. See figure here.

Figure. Kent Displays digital signage
Kent Display welcome Jennifer
Source: Kent Displays Inc. Photo by Jennifer Colegrove

The digital signage is using Kent Displays’ bi-stable LCD, which is called “zero power” display. The display doesn’t consume any power when showing a static image; only consume power when you change the image. It is operated with battery; no power plug needed.
I had a meeting with my old industry friends: Dr. Green, CEO of Kent Displays, and Dr. Khan, CTO of Kent Displays, and Mr. Oswald, communication director of Kent Displays. I also had a tour of their factory and discovered their success story of the Boogie Board.
Kent Displays make the Boogie Board from the flexible display to the final shipping box of the Boogie Board. In another words, they do the whole supply chain. Dr. Khan said, “In some sense, we are doing more than Apple.” That is a good comparison and its true. Apple doesn’t make the displays; rather they purchase the displays from LG, Samsung, Sharp, AUO, Japan Display, etc.
More analysis will be in our “Touch and Emerging Display” May 2014 report. You can subscribe to the report right now on this website.
Thanks for reading,
Jennifer and team

Curved 105-inch displays at CES are LCDs (not OLED)

March 31, 2014

In the weekend, I read a famous consumer electronic publisher’s article about the 105-inch curved display at CES; it indicated they are curved OLED screen:

Figure: Image of the publisher’s statement about 105-inch curved display

CEA wrong about 105 curved OLED deco

Source: a famous consumer electronic publisher

That statement is wrong. Both LG and Samsung showed several curved display at CES 2014, but the 105-inch curved displays are LCDs, not OLED.  The largest curved OLED demonstrated is 77-inch so far (not count the type that tile many OLED displays together). It’s a bit of heartbreak to see that this famous consumer electronic publisher spread the wrong information.

As I wrote in our mission: I’m concerned about these people and the people they advise. I feel as a Ph.D. and experienced technology analyst, I have the responsibility to provide to my clients correct knowledge, up-to-date information, forward-thinking analysis, and best business strategies.

Touch Display Research has published CES 2014 analysis report in January, it provided detail analysis of all the curved LCDs and curved AMOLED.  

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

We become a member of FlexTech Alliance

March 17, 2014

Touch Display Research is very glad to announce that we just joined FlexTech Alliance and become their new member.

FlexTech Alliance has been providing tremendous amount of help to Touch Display Research since we established over one year ago.

Touch Display Research attended FlexTech Flexible and Printed Electronic 2013 conference and blogged it.

Touch Display Research gave presentation at FlexTech workshop: Emerging Materials and Processes for Transparent Conductors, July 10, 2013.

Touch Display Research had exhibition booth at FlexTech 2014FLEX conference.

We look forward to growing and contributing to FlexTech Alliance. FlexTech’s website is www.flextech.org.

Thanks for reading.

Jennifer and team.

 

 

Electronic Display Conference (eDC 2014) in Germany

February 27, 2014

I’m traveling in the beautiful Nuremburg, Germany for electronic Display Conference (eDC) 2014. Even though it’s raining today, the conference still had over 260 attendees.

In the touch session in the morning, Dr. Roland Aubauer from Microchip Technology discussed 3D gesture touch controller they developed. Mr. Bob Raikes, from Meko (also my industry friend) gave a presentation titled “Just because touch works on a phone, it’s not always the answer”. He jokingly suggested the PC should add a foot pedal, so like driving a car, we can use our foot to do left click or right click. Even that is a joke, but he does have a good point: besides finger touch, there are many other methods to do machine-human user interface.

Figure: Mr. Bob Raikes gave presentation

Bob speak

Photo by: Jennifer Colegrove

At the keynote session, Dr. Jyrki Kimmel from Nokia could not come in person, so he gave the keynote about displays in the mobile ecosystem on the telephone, while the conference chairman Professor Doctor Blankenbach helped to click through the slides.  It went well.

Then on behalf of Touch Display Research, I gave a keynote on the touch screen and emerging display market. I first thanked the conference organizer and our sponsor company Data Modul. I then discussed 7 new opportunities in the touch and display market: phablet, NB and AIO PC with touch, ITO-replacement, flexible and curved display, active pen, touchless control, and quantum dot.

Figure: Touch Display Research Dr. Jennifer Colegrove gave presentation

Jenny speaking edc small3

Photo by: Dr. Susanne Bieller, VDMA-DFF

At the end, Mrs. Sweta Dash from IHS gave a keynote about top 10 display trends for 2014 and beyond.

The conference ended at around 4:20pm very successfully. Attendees were still lingering around for networking.

Thanks for reading,

Jennifer and team