Maybe in response to analysts doubting the future of OLED TVs, LG Display held a showcase in Korea with its latest OLED TV prototypes. So first of all, the company unveiled a new 0.97 mm thick 55" flat OLED panel, that virtually "sticks to the wall" using magnets. The OLED panel itself weighs only 1.9 Kg.

LG Display also demonstrated a convex OLED panel - that will mainly be used for digital signage for large-scale outdoor advertising (this is not a new idea, Panasonic demonstrated similar panels last year). Finally, LG revealed plans to release a large 99" TV within the year.

LGD aims to ramp up OLED TV production from Q3 2015, to a "substantial level", and they "should be able to supply a satisfactory volume to clients from July or August". These clients aren't just LG Electronics - LGD is gearing up to supply panels to other makers (including, perhaps, Panasonic) that will join their upcoming OLED TV alliance.

Audi's Head of Electronics says that the upcoming 2017 A8 Saloon car will sport several new technologies - including OLED lighting. Or at least the company is "working on the integration of OLEDs" for the 2017 flagship model.

Audi has been playing with OLED technologies for a long time. Back in 2012 they unveiled three new OLED lighting designs, and in 2013 they unveiled 3D OLED lighting taillight prototypes (developed with Philips and Merck). It'll be interesting to see if the upcoming A8 will use one of these designs.

Audi is also interested in flexible OLED displays. The company's latest concept, the Prologue, used bendable OLED mounted at the case of the centre console. The prototype display was made by Samsung Display, and is 8.9 x 5.6 inch in size (226.56 x 141.6 mm) and features a resolution of 2560x1600 (287 PPI). Audi says that there are only 10 such displays in existence today, this is a very early sample from Samsung. Maybe the new A8 will also adopt a new OLED display for its interior.

If Audi actually adopts OLED lighting - this will probably be the first car on the market with the new lighting technology. Unless BMW beats them to it.

Towards the end of 2014, Home Depot started to offer several Acuity Brands OLED luminaries, with prices starting at $199. This was exciting - as these are the cheapest OLED lamps ever, and it is the first time OLEDs are offered at a major retail channel.

The nice guys at Acuity Brands sent me a Chalina 5-panel OLED luminaire (wall-mountable version) for a review here at OLED-Info. You can read the full review here. Spoiler alert - I really like this lamp!

In the past few weeks we saw several new OLED market reports, from various analysts. We'll start with OLED lighting. UBI Research says that while LEDs are currently the most prominent next-gen lighting devices, OLED panel shipments will grow quickly in coming years, and they see the market growing from around $100 million in 2016 to over $2.7 billion in 2020. By 2025, OLED lighting will grab about 10% of the total lighting market. Regarding the interior lighting market, UBI says that starting in 2020, OLED lighting will become competitive with LED lighting, and will gain market share. By 2025, OLED will become the dominant interior lighting technology, generating $5.7 billion in revenue. Flexible OLED lighting will take up about 27% of the total OLED interior lighting market.

N-Tech (Nanomarkets) is less optimistic about this market - but they still see a $1 billion OLED lighting market in 2020. The company acknowledges that OLED lighting still lacks the momentum they expected by now, by they still see the OLED lighting market reaching $1 billion in sales by 2020 and over $2.2 billion by the end of 2022. IDTechEx, meanwhile, says that with only LG Chem and Konica Minolta left, the market will take long to emerge - and will only reach $840 million in 2022.

Let's look at the OLED display market now. DisplaySearch says that the AMOLED market will grow 44% in 2015, and will reach 260 million units. The growth will accelerate starting in 2016. Regarding the OLED TV market, the company is less optimistic and sees a slow market penetration. In fact, DisplaySearch says that OLED TVs will not become profitable for LG Display before 2019. LG themselves expects OLEDs to become profitable "in a few yeas".

Regarding the flexible OLED market, IHS sees 25 million panels shipped in 2015, and this will grow to over 100 million in 2019 - or 25% of the total AMOLED market (400 million units).

BOE Display is starting to build its Gen-6 LTPS LCD/AMOLED production line in Chengdu, China. The total cost of this fab is estimated at $3.54 billion, and the fab is scheduled for production in H1 2017 - and it will produce high-end small-sized mobile displays, and will have a capacity of 45,000 substrates per month. It's not clear what will be the ratio between the OLED and LCD production at the fab.

BOE is quite active with OLEDs - the China-based company is constructing a 5.5-Gen LTPS fab in Ordos, which will also produce both LCDs and AMOLED displays with a monthly capacity of 54,000 substrates (LCD and AMOLED). BOE aims to start OLED production in the second half of 2015 in the Ordos fab.

In addition to Ordos 5.5-Gen LTPS fab, BOE is planning to build a Gen-8.5 OLED TV fab in Hefei Xinzhan. The company secured a $20 million subsidy from the local government and they expect the total cost of the first line at around $1 billion. BOE already has a Gen-8.5 pilot line in place that was used to produce 55" 4K OLED panel prototypes demonstrated back in 2014.

IGNIS Innovation has secured $14 million in a new financing round. Ignis will use the new funds to accelerate product development especially the recently announced True Vision Display technology. True Vision Displays use the company's compensation technologies which extend OLED display lifetime and efficiency, and also enable HDR - even on mobile displays.

Ignis will unveil a 5.5-inch HD AMOLED display that features 1,500 nits - almost twice the brightness of Samsung's Galaxy S6. Ignis further said that is working with partners to develop True Vision Display OLEDs for the wearable, smartphone, automotive, tablet and TV markets. Ignis expects the first products to launch next year.