CES 2013 was exciting this year. We've seen OLED TVs (prototypes and products) from Samsung, LG, Sony and Panasonic, flexible YOUM AMOLED panels from Samsung along with some beautiful device concepts, curved OLED TVs from both LG and Samsung, and more.

Click here to read our CES 2013 OLED coverage.

Samsung Display announced that they have produced 300 million AMOLED panels since mass production started in January 2007. Samsung production rate is accelerating: it took them 53 months to produce the first 100 million panels, 11 months to produce the next 100 million and only 7 months to produce another 100 million.Remember that the OLED capacity has increased faster than that because the average AMOLED panel size is increasing all the time. The current production rate is about 470,000 OLED panels a day.

The main customer for Samsung's OLEDs is still Samsung Electronics. Galaxy S series phone sales just reached 100 million units (the original Galaxy S launched in May 2010). The best selling phones in the series are the S2 (40 million), S3 (30 million) and S (almost 30 million). The original Galaxy S launched in May 2010. The Galaxy S3 is now selling at an average rate of 190,000 units per day. The Galaxy Note II (with its 5.5" Super AMOLED HD display) is also doing great - Samsung says they are on track to sell 10 million units by the end of Q1 2013, just four or five months since launching the phone in September 2012.

What's next for Samsung? Well, the company has already unveiled a 4,99" Full-HD AMOLED panel, which will probably be used in the next Galaxy S series phone (which will probably be called the S4). They are also working on flexible YOUM panels - which will enable them to make shatterproof phones with curved displays. Industry insiders told us that Samsung is thinking about investing in a 6.5-Gen OLED fab, to start making tablet and laptop OLED displays. 2013 will sure be interesting...

LG has officially launched their OLED TVs, and the first sets are expected to ship in Korea during February. The company is now discussing its OLED investment plan going forward. LGD is planning to convert their Gen-8 fab from LCD to OLED production, but haven't haven't decided how many of the fab lines will be converted.

According to KoreaTimes, LG has decided to go ahead with an ambitious plan (an "all-out effort") to dominate the OLED TV market. LGD's 2013 investment will be 3.8 trillion won ($3.6 billion USD), and most of it will be used to increase LG's OLED TV capacity and improve the technology, followed by investments into Flexible OLEDs and Oxide-TFT LCDs.

Other reports suggest that LG plans to expand its OLED TV lineup with new 40" and 70" models. The larger models will be marketed in the US while the smaller ones will be sold in Korea and Europe. LG Display's CEO, Han Sang-beom, says that the company the Japanese companies are "very much interested in OLED panels". Han wouldn't say which Japanese companies they're in talks with. Back in February 2012 it was reported that LGD is talking to Sony about OLED panel supply . Sony has unveiled their own 56" 4K OLED prototype (made in collaboration with AUO) - but it may take a while for Sony to bring this to market, and in the meantime they will perhaps use LGD's panels. Han actually said they are in talks with several TV makers - so it's not just Sony, it may also be Panasonic, Toshiba, Hitachi and Sharp.

During CES, Panasonic unveiled a 56" 4K (3840x2160) OLED TV panel prototype that was produced using an all-printing method. Panasonic considers OLED as a "promising option for next-generation displays". Sony supplied the TFT backplane and its Super Top Emission technology to Panasonic's panel. Panasonic used printing technologies to deposit the organic materials.

Reports suggest that Panasonic plans to stop producing LCD TV panels in its Himeji plant, and instead use the fab to produce OLED TVs and 4K 20" tablet LCD panels. Different reports from Japan claim that Panasonic aims to launch their first printed OLED TVs in 2015.

There are some new conflicting reports regarding AUO's OLED program. Some reports claim that AUO is still struggling with technology issues - mostly low yields (30%-40%) and costs - and has only managed to produce 126 PPI displays It's possible that all through 2013 AUO will only be able to make these low density panels, and so only target the entry-level and mid-range mobile phone markets.

According to Chinese site OLEDW, however, AUO managed to overcome the yield issues (they reached 60% yield), and HTC will use AUO's 4.65" OLED panels in their upcoming M7 flagship phone (Digitimes says that HTC decided to use Sharp-made LCD panels instead). These 720p panels will sport a high 317 PPI (this panel was unveiled by AUO back in October 2012).

AIV-BIX is a Chinese company, held by Aivtech International Group (NASDAQ:AIVI) is apparantly advancing in its OLED program. AIV-BEX plans to construct a 4.5-Gen line that uses Oxide-TFT backplanes and ink-jet printing for the organic material deposition (engaging Dutch based company ,OLED Technologies & Solutions). The Oxide-TFT panels will actually be produced by Guangzhou New Vision and delivered to AIV-BEX to complete the process. AIV-BEX's line will have a monthly capacity of 30,000 sheets. The first panels will be around 4.3" in size and WVGA in resolution (220 ppi), so they can make around 40 million such panels in a year.

Currently the plan is to start production in 2014. The total investment in this project will be around ¥30 billion (or about $4.82 billion, including building all the infrastructure such as roads and power lines), and the first line (with the 30,000 monthly sheet capacity) will cost ¥3.6 billion ($580 million). Obviously this is a very ambitious project, especially if you consider that Aivtech is currently trading at a value of around $2 to $3 million USD. It doesn't seem likely to me that this company will be able to raise the cash needed to develop this project, but we'll keep our eyes open on that one. (Disclosure: the author of this newsletter holds some Aivtech shares).