01/17, 5:00am
Samsung Group plans huge expansion for 2012
Korea’s Samsung Group, which is comprised of 80 companies including Samsung Electronics, plans to expend a massive $41.4 billion in capital investment for 2012, according to Reuters. This includes a planned $1 billion expansion of its Austin chip fabrication plant, but is also expected that a significant chunk of the new round of capital investment will be in logic chips and the next-generation of OLED flat-screen displays. By comparison, the combined capital investment of Japanese tech heavyweights Sony, Toshiba and Hitachi is expected to total just $16.6 billion.
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01/13, 6:50pm
Company premiers 55" OLED model
LG showed off a range of new products this week at CES, including a number of new TVs. Electronista took an early look at the company's 2012 lineup, which includes many 3D models and a 55-inch OLED flagship that stunned the crowds with its extreme contrast ratio and color saturation.
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01/05, 11:35pm
New tech to be displayed at CES
Toshiba has announced that it will show off several upcoming products next week at CES, including a waterproof tablet and a large glasses-free 3D TV. Aside from the waterproof tablet, which also offers wireless charging, the company will show off a different model that integrates an OLED display.
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01/03, 6:45pm
Will gauge consumer interest after CES
The chairman of Chinese LCD monitor maker Amtran has told industry trade publication Digitimes that his company, one of several OEM suppliers to Apple, will consider getting into the OLED monitor and potentially television business after gauging market conditions following the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The recent introduction by LG of a 55-inch OLED HDTV has fuelled speculation that Apple may use OLED for its rumored HDTV product.
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01/01, 10:55pm
LG further teases 55-inch OLED TV ahead of CES
LG has offered more details of its ultrathin 55-inch OLED TV set ahead of its private, media-only, unveiling at CES. The prototype TV, which in addition to currently holding the title as the largest OLED TV yet produced, is said to be much more color accurate than other OLED displays that can be prone to unnatural color gamut and hue shifting when viewed at different angles.
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11/07, 2:35pm
Samsung only real source for OLED panels
Despite recent reports, it's unlikely that Apple will use OLED panels in its products anytime soon, says Canaccord Genuity analyst Jonathan Dorsheimer. Last Thursday a patent application emerged suggesting Apple interest in a more power-efficient OLED display. The news helped send stock of an OLED maker, Universal Display, up 17 percent during Friday trading.
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11/05, 6:10am
Sony preps 720p OLED display for cameras
Sony is prepping a 720p display that is just 0.7-inch across. It uses OLED technology and offers a native resolution of 1280x720, while it is intended for use in electronic viewfinder applications such as cameras.
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08/31, 7:55am
Sony brings 3D HD OLED headset to market
Sony has unveiled the world's first 3D compatible head mounted display, the HMZ-T1. The device, first shown at CES in January as a prototype, is equipped with two 1280x720 pixel OLED panels each measuring just 0.7-inch diagonally. When worn, the two panels combine to give the user an experience the equivalent of watching a movie theater-like 750-inch screen.
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08/23, 8:15am
Samsung and Universal Display sign PHOLED deal
Samsung Mobile Display has teamed with Universal Display in a push for lower-power OLED displays. The two companies have entered into a licensing agreement that will allow Samsung to use Universal Display’s PHOLED technology in its OLED panels. Phosphorescent OLED panels can consume up to four times less power than OLED panels without the technology, which will translate to substantially longer battery life for mobile device users.
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08/22, 9:45am
Company worried about costs, technical issues
Apple will probably not use OLED in its rumored TVs, say "directly involved" sources cited by the Korea Times. "It's true that Apple has keen interest in TV, allowing users to stream music, videos and TV shows via iTunes, though that needs some iPhone and iPad integration, however, Apple is still pessimistic about using OLED displays," one source is quoted as saying. The person elaborates that because Apple is worried about costs and technical problems associated with large-sized OLEDs, rumors that Apple has asked LG Display to supply OLEDs for TVs are "groundless."
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08/08, 6:45pm
Production focused on 8.5-generation panels
LG is reportedly preparing to increase its investment in OLED technology, potentially bringing the funding up to approximately $2.83 billion by the second half of 2014. The company's display division is said to be readying a small run of OLED panels that will be utilized by LG Electronics for use in a 55-inch television that is expected to arrive on the market in mid-2012.
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08/05, 6:30pm
Sony set to introduce low-cost OLED monitors
Sony is readying much less expensive OLED monitors, according to a report. The new monitors, which are aimed at commercial users, could priced as much as 70 percent below its existing product line. Currently, a 25-inch commercial OLED monitor costs as much as $29,300.
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07/28, 6:10pm
OLED panel yields said to be too low as of yet
An executive from Taiwan-based display panel maker AU Optronics suggests OLED panels of television size will not be commercially feasible until 2014, according to a DigiTimes report. The comments, which came from AUO executive vice president Paul Peng, suggest the production costs are too high as manufacturing yield rates have yet to reach a satisfactory level to compete with standard LCD panels.
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02/09, 10:15pm
Descriptions include phones, tablets, computers
Apple has yet to integrate OLED display technology into any of its products, opting instead for IPS panels and extremely high pixel densities. The company appears to be taking the technology seriously, however, as three of its latest patent applications relate to OLED displays that could be used in smartphones, tablets, computers or televisions.
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11/08, 5:40am
Also intros new teaser video for OLED tech
Samsung has announced the details of its next generation of OLED displays, OLED Max. The new technology is more color accurate and displays images closer to their natural color. The improvements have come as the result of using new algorithms for color harmonization, detail enhancement, and intelligent contrast enhancement.
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02/22, 10:55pm
N1 shows low brightness, artifacts
Despite a number of reviews suggesting the Nexus One's AMOLED display is superior to LCDs used on most smartphones, such as the iPhone, the testing equipment company DisplayMate came to different conclusions following a series of evaluations with both devices. The report, authored by DisplayMate president Dr. Raymond Soneira, covers a variety of observations relating to color depth, image quality, brightness, contrast ration, and more.
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09/10, 11:10pm
Linux Mobile device gets 8MP camera, OLED display
Images have surfaced of an unannounced Samsung handset running on the LiMo platform and headed for Vodafone. The images, posted on the Boy Genius Report, show a brushed steel housing and an OLED screen with haptic feedback. The device is said to get an 8-megapixel camera, although further hardware specs remain unknown.
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09/04, 12:45pm
Dependent on industry progress
Samsung's first deployment of OLED notebooks should occur in about a year, an executive from the company explains. Samsung's head of worldwide sales and marketing for computers, Kyu Uhm, revealed the information at this week's IFA expo in Berlin. "Samsung is the largest OLED screen manufacturer. And as soon as it's available commercially for laptops we will adopt it," says Uhm. "Probably sometime Q3 next year."
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12/29, 4:15pm
Nokia files folding patent
The world's biggest cellphone maker, Finland's Nokia, has applied for a patent that could eventually result in a phone or other portable electronic device that folds in four. According to the concept illustrations, two of the folding panels might be dedicated to the screen, while the other pair might form a large QWERTY keyboard, allowing for a notebook-like interface. It is not known whether the device will indeed be a smartphone, a UMPC or something in-between.
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12/02, 4:55pm
Samsung OLED displays
In a speech made last week at a seminar in Tokyo, Woo Jong Lee, the Vice President of the Mobile Display Marketing Team of Samsung SDI, said the joint venture between Samsung Electronics and Samsung SDI will bring active matrix organic LED (OLED) displays to market in notebooks by 2010. Lee pointed out advantages of the new display technology, saying by 2010, burn-in for active-matrix OLED panels won't happen for more than 2,000 hours of use. The OLED panels will be used in notebooks first because of their demanding requirements.
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11/24, 4:25pm
Blue for OLED screens
South Korean scientists say they have developed a new material they call "true blue" that should speed up the development of organic light-emitting displays (OLEDs), according to a weekend report. The announcement comes from a chemistry professor at Pusan National University, Jin Sung-Ho, who led the state-funded project, which was performed in conjunction with engineers at Seoul National University. Up until now, scientists had trouble developing efficient blue lights for the application. OLEDs require green, red and blue lights in their screens for proper color reproduction.
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11/24, 10:30am
Samsung flexible OLED
Samsung concept phone features folding OLED screen
At the FPD International show recently held in Japan, Samsung showed off a cellphone with a flexible folding OLED screen that, when opened, is larger than displays from any competitor. The handset features a vertical hinge and opens like a book. Once opened, the OLED display is about 5 inches in size. The unnamed handset also has a more conventional LED display on the front panel. That front panel also sports basic phone buttons, but there is no physical keypad, suggesting the smaller display is touch-sensitive.
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10/10, 4:30pm
OLED touch light prototype
At the Plastic Electronic 2008 show, the Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems showed the first touch-controlled flat light source. Because Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLEDs) are cold to the touch, they could act as ideal touch controls. The innovation lies in the lack of any additional foils traditionally required to operate the light, which is both a switch and a source. Therefore, no additional hardware is required as the OLED is used to read the touch signal.
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09/11, 9:10am
Sony OLED TV, display
At its dealer convention held in Japan on Wednesday, Sony introduced a new Organic LED (OLED) TV prototype that uses batteries for installation or mounting flexibility along with a wireless connection to its tuner. While speakers are built-in and must therefore be powered by the battery as well, Sony executives say the lower power consumption of an OLED panel make batteries a viable solution to powering the TV, though they did not reveal battery life or more details on the wireless HD video and audio signal transmission.
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08/21, 4:30pm
Kodak places OLED order
Kodak has placed an order with Chi Mei EL (CMEL) for 7.6-inch OLED displays for use in the company's digital photo frames, according to today's report. CMEL specializes in manufacturing OLED panels and is owned by LCD maker Chi Mei Optoelectronics. The supplier is expected to start production of the 7.6-inch panels in September and ship them to Kodak in time for sale during the holiday shopping season.
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08/21, 1:00pm
New SMOLED display tech
Toshiba Matsushita Display (TMD) and Idemitsu Kosan say they have devised a new form of screen, one which could substantially improve the performance of cellphone displays. The technology is based on an OLED variant called SMOLED -- Small-Molecule Organic LED -- and in a sample, 2.2-inch QVGA screen, consumes an average of just 100mW of power. Its luminosity half-life is meanwhile rated at 60,000 hours, close to seven years of continuous operation, or 30 times longer than previous TMD designs.
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06/27, 4:05pm
Panasonic denies OLED TV
Panasonic will not bring a 37-inch OLED TV to market by 2011 as reported on Tuesday, according to the company. Panasonic executives are instead hinting its OLED TVs will be sold to consumers closer to 2015, although they are officially keeping tight-lipped about specific timelines, saying only that research and development is ongoing in Japan.
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06/24, 10:35am
Panasonic Plans 37in OLED
Panasonic under its current Matsushita parent name said on Tuesday that the company is in the last stages of drafting plans for a 37-inch, OLED-based HDTV. Actual designs and development are still in the future but should see a screen available within three years that should be priced below $1,400, putting the new display technology within competition of today's existing LCD screens.
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05/22, 9:55am
Sony OLEDs Larger in 2008
Sony executive Yoshito Shiraishi has revealed at the SID display expo that his company is confident enough in the development of OLED technology that it plans to make a major investment in the technology for the second half of this year. The TV producer will invest the equivalent of $210 million to help it produce larger OLED displays and expects medium-sized and larger versions of the ultra-thin screens to enter production in the same second-half 2008 timeframe. The company expects a larger-still range of OLED panels between 2009 and 2010, Shiraishi says.
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04/24, 9:25pm
LG to beat competitors
LG will be rolling out its 8G television line at least half a year ahead of other Taiwanese rivals, including S-LCD, AU Optronics, and Chi Mei Optoelectronics. According to DIGITIMES, the Korean electronics manufacturer already completed its fabrication shells, and has scheduled production to begin by March 2009, and full-scale production of 32 inch OLED TVs to commence in 2011. LG's competitors will start production in late 2008.
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04/22, 12:30pm
Mainstream AMOLED in 2009?
Production of AMOLED panels should finally reach mainstream levels in 2009, according to Woo-Jong Lee, the VP of Samsung's mobile display marketing group. AMOLED is one of several display technologies that may replace stalwarts like plasma or LCD; in particular, AMOLED is said to provide higher contrast and response, as well as wider viewing angles and longer battery life. The difficulty so far, according to Lee, has been production costs -- at present, AMOLED is only economical for smaller products such as cellphones, and continues to be rare regardless.
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04/02, 2:50pm
Gartner on OLED iPhone
The technology and costs are in place that Apple may still introduce an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) screen with an upcoming generation of the iPhone, according to an interview Electronista has conducted with Gartner analyst Ken Dulaney. While making it clear that claims of mass production of a 3G iPhone last week were not predictions but rather just "credible" numbers based on expectations, the researcher maintains that OLED is a realistic possibility for the iPhone's display due to power requirements for 3G radios, which almost always consume more energy than 2G radios.
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02/19, 12:15pm
Sony Expanding OLED Tech
Sony will spend roughly $203.5 million on developing technology to build medium to large Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED) panels for use in TVs and monitors, the company announced today. While Sony already has an OLED TV on the market that exemplifies the ultra-thin design of OLEDs at 3mm (0.12in) thick, the XEL-1, its display measures just 11 inches across and is priced out of most hands at about $2,500 in the US.
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01/25, 10:40am
Toshiba Long-Life OLED TV
Technology partnership Toshiba Matsushita Display on Friday unveiled a new spin on organic light-emitting diode (OLED) TVs that should ensure they last as least as long as LCD or plasma with the color accuracy and thinness of the newer technology. Using a new metal membrane, a 20.8-inch OLED set can output light more efficiently than earlier OLEDs. This allows the screen to run at half brightness without sacrificing the already bright picture of an OLED screen. Resulting screens can last twice as long as recent OLEDs, which themselves last for 10 years of constant use -- enough to more than match the typical lifetime of an LCD, the company says.
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01/04, 7:40pm
Digital Foci OLED keychain
Digital Foci today unveiled two new Pocket Album OLED photo viewers, which will be on display at its CES 2008 booth. The Pocket Album OLED 1.5 features a 1.5-inch screen, with 32MB of internal flash storage – enough to hold approximately 120 photos. The integrated, rechargeable battery holds up to four hours of life, and can be charged through USB. Slideshows can run in either automatic or manual modes, which can display images randomly or in sequence. Digital Foci includes its Photo Viewer Software that allows users to crop and rotate images, which it then will automatically resize for optimal viewing and storage. The Pocket Album OLED 1.5 will be available in April for $50.
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12/28, 12:05pm
Laser, more TV tech at CES
Next month's Consumer Electronics Show, scheduled for January 7th to the 10th, may see the arrival of some long-awaited TV technologies, according to reports. Laser sets -- which are said to be lighter, less power-intensive and cover 90 percent of the visible color spectrum -- should finally make their public debut, as Mitsubishi has announced a formal unveiling. Models from Samsung and Mitsubishi were originally supposed to premiere by the end of 2007, but unspecified delays pushed the date forward.
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12/27, 8:50am
Samsung 31-inch OLED
Samsung's SDI division on Thursday morning announced that it had developed a 31-inch TV using active matrix organic LED (AMOLED) technology. The screen is the largest to ever have been completed, eclipsing a 27-inch Sony OLED demonstrated early this year. As OLEDs need no separate backlight, the Samsung set measures just 4.3mm (0.17 inches) deep -- a tenth of the size of a contemporary LCD display, Samsung boasts. Nonetheless, the technology also has a far better contrast ratio than typical flat-panel displays and consumes half the power of a 32-inch LCD.
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12/12, 11:50am
40" Samsung OLED at CES
Samsung will soon be displaying the world's largest OLED TV to the public, the company has announced. At next month's Consumer Electronics Show, scheduled from January 7th to the 10th, Samsung will be displaying a 40-inch OLED set (not pictured), several times larger than Sony's flagship XEL-1, which is due to ship to the US within the next few months. OLEDs appear likely to replace LCD and plasma screens in the 2010s, due to several factors: they are first of all able to operate without a backlight, not only allowing true blacks, but also consuming less electricity.
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