EverDisplay Optronics was established in October 2012 in Shanghai, China with plans to become China's first AMOLED producer. Everdisplay is constructing a Gen-4.5 LTPS AMOLED fab. I posted an interview with the company's marketing team, in which they confirm plans for mass production in Q4 2014. The company already produced sample panels (4.5", 5.5" and 6", all 720p) and shipped some to selected customers.

The company's Gen-4.5 fab has a capacity of 15,000 monthly substrates. They focus on small-medium size displays and mainly target smart phones, wearable devices and automotive applications. EDO also develops flexible OLEDs.

DisplaySearch says that manufacturing costs for small-sized AMOLEDs are currently about 10-20% higher than comparable LCDs. A 5" Full-HD AMOLED for example, costs 16% more than a comparable LCD one. But improvement in production yields will lower the gap - and in fact DisplaySearch sees OLEDs becoming cheaper than LCDs within two years, when AMOLED production yields reach 90%. DisplaySearch also says sees OLED materials cost reductions, which will also reduce prices further.

Some estimate that next-generation production methods (for example ink-jet printing) will enable even cheaper AMOLED production.

Back in 2012, LG Display was awarded a project by the Korean government to develop 60" UHD flexible and transparent panels by 2017. Later in February 2014, LGD said it is still on target for this project, and that it will show 17" flexible panel prototypes by the end of 2014. True to its word, the Korean company demonstrated a 18" rollable OLED and a 18" transparent OLED. These are the largest flexible and transparent OLEDs ever shown!

The flexible OLED features a resolution of 1200x810 (80 PPI), and a curvature radius of 30R. It can be rolled up to a radius of 3 cm without hurting the display. LG's R&D center chief said that LG intends to lead the future display market, and they are still confident that they will be able to develop a 60" UHD flexible and transparent OLED by 2017. The 2017 panel will have a transmittance of over 40% and a curvature radius of 100R.

You can see more photos of those panels here, and also great videos of these exciting prototypes here.

LG Display announced that it signed supply contracts with several car makers in Germany (including Daimler-Benz) to supply with OLED panels - most likely flexible ones. LG expects flexible OLEDs to "fast replace the currently available glass-made LCD panels".

LG Display also plans to start producing transparent displays (probably OLEDs) for this market. In 2013 LGD generated almost $500 million in sales of automotive displays (probably all LCDs). The company hopes that those flexible and transparent OLEDs will enable them to grow by 30% a year in the next three years - and then LGD will become the leading automotive display company.

Philips' OLED lighting division has a new head of Marketing and Business Development - Jay Kim. Kim was kind enough to agree to an interview here at OLED-Info, discussing Philips' current OLED lighting products and plans for the future.

Philips is very upbeat on OLEDs. Kim personal expectation is that by 2018 the latest, OLEDs will be a household product that anyone can afford to buy. Kim also discusses the company's flexible OLED program, and he promises first samples towards the end of 2014 and a full launch in 2016/2017.

LG Display reported their financial results for Q2 2014, and during the conference call LG updated that when the M2 fab comes online (still expected in Q4 2014) the total capacity will indeed by 34,000, as currently they make 8,000 substrates a month (in the pilot line). This makes sense and means that the confusing report last month, regarding LGD's second $788 million investment towards another OLED TV fab, was probably incorrect.

Regarding flexible OLEDs, LG Display currently makes 6,000 4.5-Gen substrates each month. In the conference call, LG updated that they expect to double that in the second half of 2014. In addition, they are thinking about a Gen-6 facility for flexible displays, but it has not been decided yet. This depends on market demand and customers.

Regardless of these cautionary statements, LG seems to be very confident on OLEDs. In a statement to the Financial Times, LG's OLED TV division VP said that "LCD has no future" as LG cannot compete with Chinese makers that can make high-quality UHD LCDs at lower costs. LG understands that if they want to survive, they have to make products that the low-cost Chinese makers cannot produce.

LG launched their new 55EC9300 OLED TV in the US. This is a 55" curved FHD OLED TV - LG's upgrade to the 55EA9800. The EC9300 features a faster refresh rate (240 Hz) and it seems to be brighter (500 cd/m² vs 350 cd/m²according to some reports). LG also changed the TV's design and the Smart TV platform (WebOS).

The 55EC9300 is available for pre-order at Bestbuy ($3,999) and Amazon.com ($4,999). It will ship in August 2014.

LG is also gearing up to release their 65" 4K OLED TV, the 65EC9700. It was recently launched in the UK (it will ship in October, for £5,999 or just over $10,000). According to reports, LG aims to launch it in the US in September. The official price is $8,999 but the TV will sell for $6,999.

LG's 2013 55" FHD model, the 55EA9800 is now on sale on Amazon.com for $3,299. LG lowered the price of that TV by almost 80% in less than a year!

In May 2014 it was reported that Japan Display may setup an OLED joint venture together with Sony and Panasonic. Today Kyodo news confirms this report, and says that the three companies will indeed form a new company (which will be called JOLED) that will develop small and medium OLED displays - mostly for tablet devices. The official announcement is expected soon.

JOLED will receive and investment from the Innovation Network Corporation of Japan, a public-private investment fund. Similarly to JDI itself, the INCJ will hold 70% in the new company. JDI will hold 20% and Sony and Panasonic will each own 5%.

I've been following UDC for over 15 now - my interest in OLEDs actually started with this company. Three weeks ago I posted a fun article at Seeking Alpha titled "Universal Display: 20X Jackpot In 2018?". In this article I present the best-case scenario for UDC (and the OLED market) in 2018. I'm trying to estimate what will happen if small/medium capacity continue expanding fast, if OLED TVs become mainstream and if OLED lighting mass production begins. So if you're a UDC long (or short, or just thinking about an investment, really) - this should be an interesting read.

I think the article was received well, and a couple of weeks later I published my second article - "Universal Display's Second Key Customer Is On Its Way". In this new article I explain why Samsung Display is such an important customer for UDC - and how I expect in that in the coming years UDC will diversity its key customer base as I expect LG Display, Konica Minolta, Everdisplay, BOE, Philips and LG Chem to start mass producing OLEDs soon.

A day after I published my article, by the way, Philips signed a commercial material supply agreement with UDC. This does not make Philips a key customer yet, but it's an important milestone. Just to set things straight - I personally own some UDC shares, bought in the open market.

I'm happy to announce our third OLED market report, the Flexible OLED Market Report. This report provides a great introduction to flexible OLED panels, both display and lighting ones. It covers everything you need to know about flexible panels technologies. This is a great guide for anyone interested in flexible panels for their own devices, and also for technology and system suppliers.

Reading this report, you'll learn all about:

• The different kinds of flexible OLEDs
• What are the main challenges towards flexible OLEDs
• All flexible OLED displays currently on the market
• The emerging flexible OLED lighting market

The report package also provides:

• Flexible OLED display product concepts and prototypes
• An overview of the OLED display market
• A guide into buying flexible OLEDs today
• OLED luminaire concepts
• Free updates for a year

I'm now offering this market report for a special launch price of $199.99 (for a single user license, site and enterprise licenses are available too). You can find out more information and download the report here.

This is the third OLED-Info market report. The first one focused on OLED microdisplays and the second on automotive OLEDs.