LG Electronics announced that it is now accepting pre-orders for the world's first curved OLED TV, the 55" 55EA9800, in Korea. This premium TV costs KW 15 million (about $13,500) and LG will start shipping it in May. They will also bring it to other markets soon. This was a big surprise as we didn't really think LG plans to launch the curved TV any time soon. It'll be interesting to see whether customers will be willing to buy this premium TV with its "IMAX like experience".

Regarding LG's "normal" OLED TVs, it is reported that the company decided to postpone the US launch to the second half of 2013. Apparently they cannot make enough panels for the US. It's not as if they selling a lot in Korea - so far they sold only 200 units. The TV will also launch in India in 2H 2013. Meanwhile the UK launch is still set for July, and the OLED TV is now on display at Harrods (LG's exclusive UK retailer).

DisplayMate compared the GS4 display (4.99" Full-HD, 441 PPI) to the iPhone 5's LCD and the GS3. They say that the GS$ OLED is a "very impressive display", and DisplayMate says that OLEDs have now reached the stage when they challenge the best LCD displays. Compared to the S3, the S4 is brighter by 25%, it's 20% more power efficient (due to the green PHOLED materials) and it's got 44% more pixels per inch (and more than double the total number of pixels).

Compared to the iPhone 5, the GS4 display is less bright, and the iPhone's LCD has a bit better color calibration, although the white is more accurate on the GS4. Of course the GS4 display is much larger and have a higher resolution. The blacks are blacker on the S4 and the screen is more uniform. Overall - DisplayMate say this is a tie.

4D Systems (an Australian OLED supplier) sent us one of their new transparent PMOLED panels for a hands on review. The uTOLED-20 is a 2", 160x128 65K-color PMOLED panel that comes with 4DS controller and display processor. A transparent OLED is cool and innovative, but is it really useful?

Sony unveiled some interesting new OLED products and prototypes at NAB 2013. First up are new 30" 4K (4096x2160) OLED monitor prototypes. Sony are making the panels themselves at the same Japanese fab that produces Sony's current OLED panels (the 7.4", 16.5" and 24.5" panels used in Sony's professional monitors). And they plan to launch these as products by April 2014.

Sony also updated their TRIMASTER EL professional OLED monitors with the new “A” Series. These new monitors use an improved panel (with a redesigned pixel construction) that has a wider viewing angle and reduced color shift (by half, compared to previous models). The new series includes the BVM-E250A/BVM-E170A cinemea/broadcast monitors, the BVM-F250A/BVM-F170A TV production and broadcasting monitors and the PVM-2541A/PVM-1741A picture monitors. Sony says that they sold over 20,000 professional OLED monitors.

DisplaySearch expects the AMOLED market to reach $11.3 billion in 2013, up 60% from 2012 ($6.9 billion). The market is still dominate by a single supplier (Samsung Display) and a single customer (Samsung), and it's still too early to tell whether OLEDs can really become a mainstream market. They forecast that Samsung will produce 52 million GS4 panels (over $3.2 billion in revenues).