On December 16th, LG Electronics announced that they will launch their first 4K Cadmium-free Quantum-Dot enhanced LCD (QD-LCD) in CES 2015. QD LCDs (LG calls them QD TVs) offer a better color gamut and improved saturation and should also be more efficient than regular LED-LCDs. Those QD TVs will be positioned above LG's current high-end Ultra HD LCDs but below the company's OLED TV range. Following that announcement, LG Display was quick to post a new article that explains how OLEDs are indeed superior to QD TVs.

I think it's important to read LGD's article conclusion: "In fact, OLED technology is the technology that is so much advanced that it should not be compared to an LCD based QD. Hence, even though LG already has the technology to create QD, it is focusing on developing OLED". LG Display further says that they expect OLED TVs to competitive with LCDs within one or two years.

LG Electronics indeed continues to push OLED TVs, and we should expect some new ones at CES 2015. By going over the MHL and Wi-Fi Alliance websites, it was found that LG is set to release several new OLED TV models, in 55", 65" and 77" sizes. Models numbers are all we currently know about these new upcoming TVs, but it seems that LG is planning new 4K models, a new flat 65" OLED TV and perhaps new Full-HD or low-end 4K models. According to C|Net, LG will also showcase a new 55" 8K (7680x4320, 160 PPI) OLED TV prototype at CES.

Finally, while LG's 65" OLED TV TV shipments are still scarce, the first review of this TV arrived a couple of weeks ago from Digital Trends . And the verdict? it's the best TV they ever saw, nothing else comes close (not even LG's 55" FHD OLED TV). In fact, the reviewer says that "best TV ever" doesn't really do it justice. LG's 65EC9700 features an incredible resolution, a top-notch resolution upscaler, perfect black levels, insane contrast, eye-dazzling color, and class-leading WebOS smart TV interface.

A couple of months ago, LG Electronics (in Israel) were kind enough to send me a 55" curved OLED TV (the EA9800, or EA970Y as it is called in Israel) for a review on OLED-Info. I posted my review here, which mostly details my experience with this TV. I decided not to write a regular review, as there are many of those on line already (and all of them with the same conclusion - that OLED TVs offer the best image quality ever!).

I always like to say that having a better TV doesn't really enhance your viewing experience. But having this TV for two weeks at home was fantastic and I found myself actually enjoying it very much. The image quality is great, and the slim ("like a paper" as one of my daughter's friends puts it) curved TV looks fantastic.

Royole, a startup established in the US in 2012, unveiled their first prototype, a 0.01 mm thick (thin?) flexible AMOLED prototype (which they say is the thinnest ever). The display is bendable, and has a bending radius of 1 mm. Samsung's recent flexible AMOLED prototypes has a radius of 5 mm - but these prototypes are closer to production units (the flexible OLED in the Galaxy Note Edge has a radius of 7 mm). Samsung's aim is to achieve a radius of 1 mm in production within two years.

The company unveiled a video showing the display in action. Apart from the video and photos, we have very little details. As far as I understand, Royole is developing flexible AMOLED backplane technologies and other OLED related technologies and materials. Hopefully we'll learn more about this interesting new company soon.

DisplaySearch posted an interesting flexible OLED market forecast, in which they say that in 2015 the market will grow almost nine-fold over 2014 - as new mobile phones and smart watches with flexible OLEDs (including Apple's Watch) hit the market.

Looking further into the future is more complicated as some of the mass-production technology isn't ready yet and demand is not clear. DisplaySearch has three different scenarios for the flexible OLED market. In their "likely" scenario, the market will grow at a CAGR of 119% from 2013 - and will reach over $20 billion in 2021.

IHS estimates the current OLED lighting market (at the panel level) at $2.7 million in 2014, and says that the market will grow tenfold by 2020 - to reach $26 million. IHS expects panel prices to drop 40% in the next several years, but OLEDs will still not be able to compete with LED lighting, and this is why it does not expect OLED lighting to really emerge as a mass market in the near future.

IHS is rather pessimistic, and other analysts see panel prices dropping much more quickly and volumes rise at a much more dramatic rate. IDTechEx for example see a $200 million panel market in 2019 that will grow to $1.9 billion in 2025. Cintelliq sees OLED competing with LEDs in 2016, and 500 million 100x100 mm OLED lighting panels produced in 2023. UBI Research estimates that the OLED lighting market will take off in 2015, and will grow to reach $4.7 billion in revenue by 2020. According to UBI within three years a 100x100 mm OLED lighting panel will cost under $5 to produce.

Garmin's Vivosmart is the second device (after Huawai's TalkBand) to use Futaba's flexible (conformable) PMOLED displays. And OLED-Info's Roni Peleg posted a hands-on review of this interesting device, which combines a fitness band with smartwatch features.

Roni's conclusion? For its price (about $170), the Vivosmart is not a bad choice, delivering good battery life, overall precise meters (calories, distance etc.) and push notifications that keep you updated even without being glued to your phone. Our main issue with the Vivosmart was that we couldn't get it paired to Roni's iPhone and iPad, even after contacting Garmin's support several times.

In the past few weeks we published several new OLED articles, which give an introduction to OLED technology topics and covers OLED application markets.

• OLED ink jet printing
• Introduction to OLED wearables
• Introduction to bendable OLED TVs
• The OLED tablet market

2014 is nearing its end, and we're a bit nostalgic. Here are the leading stories from the past year, ranked by popularity. We wish all our readers a wonderful and bright 2015!

1. LG Display explains why a curved TV is preferable to a flat one
2. Where are the OLED monitors and OLED laptops?
3. Konica Minolta to build a flexible OLED lighting R2R fab with a monthly capacity of 1 million panels
4. CES Aftermath: is LG taking the lead in OLED TVs? (Jan 13)
5. LG to ship their 77" curved 4K OLED TV by Q2 2014 for $29,999
6. LG launches 77", 65" and 55" 4K and FHD OLED TVs in Korea
7. LGD details their flexible OLED process, sees a $41 billion flexible OLED market in 2020
8. Panasonic shows 55" curved OLED TV prototypes at CES 2014
9. Philips says OLED is ready for the general lighting market
10. Hands on with LG's G Flex plastic OLED flexible phone

2014 was a great year at OLED-Info. After working on the site alone for over 10 years, I finally got some help. Roni Peleg joined me (you can read more about her here) and together we're going to take OLED-Info to the next level. Within the next few months you're going to see some changes here, and hopefully better OLED industry coverage and insights.

It's likely that in 2015 we'll see flexible OLEDs and OLED lighting making a larger impact, coupled with increased OLED capacity and lower OLED TV prices. It is expected that next year Samsung will release their first foldable phone, while LG promised us a bendable OLED TV. The top stories list in 2014 is dominated by stories about LG's OLED TVs, and hopefully soon other vendors will enter this market too.