During the CES tradeshow, LG announced its OLED TV lineup for 2015 - with nine new OLED TVs - including some curved TVs, some flat ones - and also the world's first bendable TV (the 77" 4K curved EG9900). All of LG's new TVs use 4K resolution. LG Display says that LG is committed to the "superior qualities of OLED" and sees 2015 as the breakout year for OLED TVs.

LG did not disclose the price or release date of any of those TVs yet. The price list in Denmark was disclosed via a local site (reportedly these prices originated from LG salesperson). LG Display's CEO, Han Sang-Beom, says that LG expects to ship 600,000 OLED panels in 2015 and 1.5 million in 2016. The company wants to be the OLED leaders, and Han says they expect competition soon from Chinese, Korean and Japanese makers. In a move to support this OLED expansion, LG Display signed a long-term license contract with Universal Display.

Maybe as a way to fight this upcoming competition, LG Display supplies OLED TV panels to several TV makers. At CES we saw OLED TVs with LGD panel on displays from Panasonic, Skyworth, Haier, Chonghong and Konka. Some of these TVs were real production models.

But it's not just about OLED TVs at LG. During CES, LG officially announced their new curved OLED phone, the G Flex 2. This exciting new phone has a 5.5" Full-HD Flexible OLED on a plastic substrate. The screen curves from top to bottom, with a curvature radius of 700 mm. The whole phone can be slightly bent, and it should already be shipping in Korea.

LG Display also unveiled a mobile phone prototype with a 6" 720p dual-edge curved flexible OLED. LG Display calls this panel an "Active Bending" OLED, and it's currently just a prototype panel. It's not all good news at LG - a tragic accident occurred at the company's OLED TV line. A nitrogen leak killed two employees and injured four others. The production was halted for two weeks and was resumed on January 30.

LG Chem announced that they completed the development of their "truly flexible" plastic-based OLED panels. They now offer engineering samples for $250 and mass production is expected by July 2015. Prices will be lower when mass production starts. The new panels can be flexed further than their current thin-glass based flexible OLEDs, and are more durable.

LG Chem also started to produce the world's largest white OLED - at 320x320 mm. These panels are 0.88 thick and feature 60 lm/W, CRI of over 90 and an output level at 800 lm - 1,200 lm. Each panel costs $680 (lower for bulk orders).

While LG Display's CES booth seemed to be focusing on OLEDs, we also saw new LCD technologies at CES. Samsung launched their quantum-dots enhanced LCDs, branding them as SUHD TVs, ranging from 48" to 88" in size. QDs enhances the TV's color gamut, efficiency, brightness and contrast, and during CES we saw new QD TVs from Samsung, LG, Philips, TCL and others

Another LCD innovation from CES are ultra-slim TVs. These new panels use thin light-guide plate (LGP) glass. Sony's "floating-style" X900C for example is only 4.9 mm thick - pretty much closing the gap with OLEDs (although those thin LGP glasses have some disadvantages, too).

Philips announced its intention to spin-off its OLED activity. Philips is searching for a buyer for its whole OLED business activity. Following the spin-off, Philips Lighting will focus on LED based connected systems and services. This is a major announcement for Philips, one of OLED lighting's leaders, and only time will tell whether this move will be positive or not for OLED technology.

Philips stated several times that they expect the OLED lighting to finally emerge to the mass market by the end of 2016 or early 2017 at the latest. In the meantime the OLED business will require more funds (especially as at some stage they will need to expand production capacity which will require a large investment) and hopefully a right buyer will come to take this technology to the next level. Philips recently gave an interesting lecture explaining its technology and production process status.

Apple rumors never die, and new ones suggest that Apple aims to adopt a flexible OLED display in the iPhone 7 (scheduled for a release in 2016). This rumor is probably based on a recent report from Japan claiming that Foxconn is developing 5" flexible OLED displays, with production (at a low-scale, though) scheduled for 2016. Foxconn is one of Apple's major suppliers.

It's too early to tell, but with Apple finally adopting an OLED display for the Watch, is it possible they will actually opt for a flexible OLED display in the 2016 iPhone? I'm a bit skeptic (doesn't make a lot of sense from the OLED capacity side) but it's too early to tell.

The OLED-Info team is excited to announce its attendance in the LOPEC 2015 conference, March 3-5, Messe Munchen, Germany. LOPEC (large-area, organic & printed electronics convention) is a leading international exhibition and conference for the printed electronics industry. LOPEC will host international market leaders aiming to present innovations, latest materials and groundbreaking processes to all walks of industry folk. If you wish to schedule a meeting with us, you can simply reply to this mail to contact us.