The big event in January is CES - the large consumer electronic show. This year we got some interesting OLED news from several companies, but all in all it was rather a disappointment as only a handful of OLED gadgets were announced, and not a lot of news regarding OLED TVs. The only major announcement was Samsung's new Super AMOLED Plus display. Samsung also showed their flexible and transparent OLEDs (but these are the same ones we've seen in the FPD 2010 exhibition).

We didn't get many OLED TVs on show, but they were a few. Sony unveiled a new 24.5" glasses-free 3D TV prototype that they plan to release in 2011 for the professional market. LG displayed the usual 31" prototypes, and Hisense unveiled a 15" OLED TV that will ship during 2011 (it uses LG Display's 15" panels).

After Apple amazed everyone with the iPhone 4 Retina LCD display, it seems that all phone makers must announce their own next-gen LCD display - which prove a very tough competition for OLEDs. LG showed the NOVA LCD display which is extremely bright, readable and very efficient, while Sony announced their Reality Display - which provides a brighter and clearer image thanks to the new "Mobile Bravia Engine" technology.

The biggest news from Samsung during CES were the new Super AMOLED Plus displays. These new displays offer 50% more 'subpixels' than the original Super AMOLED displays, and no longer use the PenTile matrix. Samsung's new manufacturing process allows them to reach over 300ppi - which is comparable to the iPhone 4 "Retina Display" (which features 326ppi). Super AMOLED Plus displays will also offer improvements in contrast and outdoor readability. Samsung showed the first phone to sport these new displays - the Infuse 4G, with a 4.5" display, the largest AMOLED Samsung ever made!

In the beginning of January, Samsung revealed that they managed to sell over 10 million Galaxy S phones in 2010 (in 7 months, really). This is a huge success for Samsung and the company announced that they will unveil the Galaxy S successor in the MWC show in February. The new phone will have a Super AMOLED Plus display and a dual-core processor. Samsung also plans to release several tablet variants during 2011 - and we sure hope at least some of them will use OLED displays. Samsung is gearing up towards increased production capacity - and announced a massive $4.8 billion investment in OLED factories in 2011.

In the beginning of 2010, after Sony stopped production of the XEL-1 OLED TV, some people speculated that Sony is withdrawing from the OLED technology. This month has proved that Sony still regards OLED as the future technology for displays, both small and large. The biggest news from Sony was the next-generation PSP announcement. This exciting new device (called PSP NGP, at least for now) will have a large 5" 960x544 touch OLED display. Other features include a quad-core processor and GPU (the PSP-NGP will be as powerful as the PS3!), new back touchpad, 3G, Wi-Fi and more. Sony's PSP-NGP will be available towards the end of 2010.

Other new OLED products from Sony include their new flagship compact camera with an OLED display, the TX100V, a head mounted display prototype with OLED microdisplays and a 24.5" glasses-free 3D TV/monitor that will be released in 2011 for the professional broadcasting industry.

Sony is also still researching flexible (rollable) OLEDs. In an interview with their display team, Dr. Kazumasa Nomoto reveals that Sony's end target is a rollable large-screen OLED TV: "The time will come when the very idea that an enormous black box (TV) was ever placed in rooms will seem strange."

We are happy to announce the new OLED-Info fan page at Facebook! We have added resources (such as photos and related pages) and will also start posting interesting stories and news directly to the page. This can also be a great place to socialize with other people interested in OLEDs where you can post and comment on stories, share links and start discussions. So be a sport, hop over to the OLED-Info fan page, and click on the like button!