Tag Archives: touch display research

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

TPK, Cambrios and NISSHA Expand Joint Venture

October 4, 2013

On October 3rd, Cambrios, TPK and NISSHA signed the expansion of joint venture– TPK Film Solution.

Back in August, in our “Touch and Emerging Display” monthly report, we’ve reported that TPK will produce silver nanowire type film touch panel by end of this year.

The interesting thing of yesterday’s news is that NISSHA also joined it. NISSHA has been producing ITO film touch panel before.

ITO (Indium Tin Oxide) is currently the mainstream transparent conductor. However, due to its high cost, long process and fragility, non-ITO type transparent conductors are gaining momentum.

Over 180 companies and research institutes are working on ITO replacement in 2013. Sixteen companies and research institutes are working on silver nanowire. Metal mesh, carbon nanotube, conductive polymer and graphene are also popular ITO-replacement transparent conductors.

Figure: Non-ITO transparent conductors vs. companies

ITO alternative figure

Source: Touch Display Research, ITO-replacement report, May 2013

What is the market size and forecast for ITO replacement transparent conductors?  What’s the price of transparent conductive film? Which transparent conductor is suitable for which application? Which direction should you invest in non-ITO transparent conductors? A detailed analysis can be found in our “ITO replacement–Non-ITO Transparent Conductor Technologies, Supply Chain and Market Forecast Report.”

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

Sharp and Microsoft both use metal-mesh ITO-replacement touch panels

September 19, 2013

I just came back from Touch Taiwan 2013 and the associated International Display Manufacturing Conference (IDMC). With about 400 exhibitors at the show, it was certainly very hot, just like the weather in Taipei.

I had a chance to touch both Sharp and Microsoft’s large size touch panel in Touch Taiwan. Both use metal mesh type ITO-replacement material on their touch panel.

Figure. Sharp metal mesh touch panel (left) and Microsoft metal mesh touch panel (right)

Sharp metal mesh touchMicrosoft metal mesh

Photo: Jennifer Colegrove, Touch Display Research Inc., 2013.

Sharp showcased a series of 20”, 32” and 70” touch panels and claim they have very high performance due to the high SNR (signal noise ratio). Microsoft’s 55” touch demo was showcased in Corning’s booth, as they used Corning’s Gorilla Glass as the cover lens.

Touch Display Research believes that metal-mesh type materials have high conductivity and could fit best on large-sized projected capacitive touch panels. We forecast the ITO-replacement market will grow to about $4 billion by 2020.

Which companies are supplying metal-mesh type transparent conductor? What’s their manufacturing process?  What’s the market share of metal-mesh vs. silver nanowire vs. carbon nanotube vs. conductive polymer vs. graphene? More analysis can be found in our ITO-replacement report and the Touch and Emerging Display monthly report.

Thanks for reading,

Jennifer and team

 

A Commendation from SID

May 31, 2013

I’m back from SID 2013 Displayweek conference with an award, given to me by SID president Brian Berkeley for my volunteer work at the SID Bay Area’s first one-day conference in January—”Display and Touch Technologies of the Future.” I really appreciate it!

Figure: SID Certificate of Commendation

SID award

Source: photo by Jennifer Colegrove

It was lots of work to put together a conference like that. Geoff Walker, the former Bay Area chapter chair, came to me and other volunteers last August, and asked us to organize the first one-day conference. After over four months of hard work, the conference was successfully held on January 16th, 2013. It was overwhelmingly successful with 160 attendees. We had to apologize to another twenty-five people on the waiting list, because the venue was not spacious enough for the extra crowd.

To all the volunteer team, this award is also for you:  Geoff, Rashmi, John, Joe, Steve, Cheng-wei, Catherine, Lauren. Thank you and cheers!

Thanks for reading,

Jennifer and team