Tag Archives: Curved OLED

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

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.  

Samsung Gear Fit with curved displays at MWC 2014

February 25, 2014

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. Although there are a dozen smart watches entered the market recently, but most of them are using flat, rigid display. As Touch Display Research reported 4 months ago, 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. We forecast 2 inch or larger curved display will be adopted in smart watch as well.

In the “Flexible and curved display technologies and market forecast” report, 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

Plastic Logic and Novaled OTFT backplane AMOLED

February 10, 2014

I just came back from the 2014 FLEX conference and the SID LA Symposium. There are many highlights in these 2 conferences. One of the exciting news is about the Organic TFT (OTFT) backplane AMOLED.

On Feb 6th, 2014, Plastic Logic’s director of research and partnerships, Mr. Mike Banach gave a presentation titled “A New Frontier for Flexible Displays”. At the same day, both Plastic Logic and Novaled announced their partnership and their demo of OTFT backplane AMOLED.

Their demo is a monochrome flexible AMOLED, targeting for wearable applications. Plastic Logic’s CEO, Indro Mukerjee, said, “2014 will be the year that wearable technology starts to go mainstream.”

Touch Display Research analyst agrees with that. Touch Display Research forecasts 30 million units flexible and curved displays will be shipped for smart watch application by 2023. Overall flexible and curved display market will reach $27 Billion by 2023.

Figure: Flexible and curved displays for smart watch application forecast to 2023

flexible curved smart watch

Source: Touch Display Research. “Flexible and Curved Display and Lighting Technologies and Market Forecast” report. September, 2013.

It is said Merck’s organic semiconductor material was used in the OTFT prototype.

As we covered in our “Flexible and Curved Display and Lighting Technologies and Market Forecast” report, Sony has demonstrated OTFT backplane AMOLED before.

Thanks for reading,

Jennifer and team

Curved TVs flood the CES 2014

Jan 8, 2014

I’ve been at CES 2014 for 3 days by now. One big trend this year is: curved TV.

As we reported 2 days ago, Samsung showcased their curved TV and bendable TV at Monday’s press conference.

LG’s booth is also full of curved TVs. The most attractive one is the 77” 4K flexible OLED TV, which they claim is the world’s first 77” flexible 4K OLED TV. I think that is true.

Many other TV suppliers also showcased curved TV at this CES, such as Hisense, Haier, Konka, Panasonic.

Curved TVs provide a unique form factor and cinema-like immersive view. We believe the ecosystem of flexible and curved displays is maturing. Good progress has been made in many areas. TFT on plastic substrate is already commercialized; ultra-thin glass is commercially available; ITO-replacement material is in mass production; bond de-bond and roll-to-roll manufacturing processes and equipment used for flexible displays are more precise.

In our recently published Flexible and curved display and lighting report, Touch Display Research forecasts that the flexible and curved display market will reach $27 Billion by 2023.

More analysis can be found in our Touch and Emerging Display monthly report.

Thanks for reading,

Jennifer and team

Samsung Curved OLED Phone Might be Using Glass Substrate

Oct 9, 2013

Samsung’s curved OLED display mobile phone is finally official. The name is Galaxy Round, which will be available in South Korea market from October 10th for $1013.

As we covered last month, Samsung’s head of mobile business marketing, Mr. Lee, announced they are planning to launch a mobile phone with a curved display in October, but gave no specifics on the display. Now here is the spec,

Figure. Samsung Galaxy Round curved phone spec

Samsung round spec

Source: Samsung and Touch Display Research Inc.

Touch Display Research believes that the curved OLED display Samsung used on Galaxy Round mobile phone might be glass substrate, not plastic.  Samsung has registered the trade mark “YOUM” for its plastic AMOLED. But Samsung didn’t mention “YOUM” in its announcement, and didn’t mention “unbreakable” either. Thus we believe the Galaxy Round is using glass substrate.

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