OLED NewsReports say Samsung got 9 million S3 pre-orders worldwide alreadyReports say that Samsung already got nine million pre-orders for the upcoming Galaxy S3, and that's before it was launched in the US. It seems that the S3 will surpass the company previous best-seller, the Galaxy S2 which in February 2012 passed the 20 million units mark.
The S3, Samsung's flagship smartphone, has a 4.8" 1280x720 HD Super AMOLED (with Pentile), a quad-core 1.4Ghz CPU, 1GB of RAM and an 8 mp camera (1080p video). The phone includes several new software technologies: voice recognition, gesture control, smart sharing and intelligent camera features. Amazon are now offering the Galaxy S3 unlocked for $799.99, and will ship it on June 1st.
Japan's high court invalidates claims in UDC's patents, shares dropBack in June 2011 Universal Display announced that some of its patents have been invalidated in Japan by the Japanese Patent Office (JPO). The company gave an update today regarding two patents. On one patent (#3992929), the Japanese High Court acknowledged the validity of certain claimed inventions in the patent, but confirmed the JPO's conclusion to invalidate the broadest claims. UDC says it intends to appeal to the Japanese Supreme court. UDC's Shares are dropping around 10% now.
Regarding the second patent (#4511024), the JPO issued a decision upholding the validity of certain claimed inventions but invalidating the broadest claims. UDC believes this decision was erroneous and they intend to appeal to the Japanese High Court.
Amazon offers the Galaxy S3 unlocked for $799 (will ship on June 1st)Amazon are now offering the Galaxy S3 unlocked for $799.99. The phone will ship in two weeks, on June 1st. This is the 16GB HSDPA model. The S3, Samsung's flagship smartphone, has a 4.8" 1280x720 HD Super AMOLED (with Pentile), a quad-core 1.4Ghz CPU, 1GB of RAM and an 8 mp camera (1080p video). The phone includes several new software technologies: voice recognition, gesture control, smart sharing and intelligent camera features.
Acuity Brands launches two new OLED luminariesAcuity Brands launched two new OLED luminaries, the Trilia and the Canvis. The Trilia is a modular lamp that uses either two kinds of models (the Tri and the Straight) to create unique network-like design. The Tri section model uses 24 OLED panels (1810 lumens) while the Straight section model uses 8 panels (603 lumens). All the panels feature an efficiency of 60 lm/W, 3500K color temperature, 15,000 hours of lifetime (LT70) and a CRI of over 80. The Canvis is a flexible "sheet of pure luminance" that comes in 4 different configurations: twist, drape, screen and pose. The twist and the Drape use 66 OLED panels (up to 5020 lumens brightness) while the screen and the post configurations use 54 panels (up to 4100 lumens). The Canvis uses the same panels used in the Trilia. As far as we know Acuity is using LG Chem made panels.
UDC: green PHOLED adoption still ahead, confirms that Samsung is DuPont's Nozzle-printing licenseeUniversal Display's management presented in an investor conference (Deutsche Bank's Clean Tech, Utilities and Power Conference). They gave an interesting introduction to the company and its business. In the Q&A, Sid Rosenblatt, the company's CFO says that currently their green PHOLED emitter is used in only two products: the Motorola Droid RAZR and the Sony Vita. This is set to change and they expect more products in the second half of 2012.
This explains why UDC's first quarter revenues were lower than expected - while red emitters sales were up 150% over last year, the green emitter sales have dropped, due to low Vita sales and high volume purchases in the previous quarter.
Sony and Panasonic to collaborate on OLED TVs?Yesterday we reported that Panasonic wants to find a partner for OLED TV development, and today Reuters reports that the company is already in talks with Sony. The two companies want to share their technologies, with an aim to start producing TVs by 2015.
In the last couple of months it was reported that Sony will buy OLED TV panels from LG Display, AUO and Samsung, or maybe develop its own OLED TV technology. So now a Panasonic collaboration joins the rumor mill. Hopefully we'll know soon who's Sony's real partner on OLED TVs... One possible explanation is that Sony will buy OLED panels in the short term but also seeks to make its own in the long term.
Panasonic wants to find a partner for OLED TVs
Panasonic posted heavy losses for 2011 ($9.7 billion!) and of the tasks of the new president Kazuhiro Tsuga is to turn around the loss-making TV division. Panasonic already confirmed OLED TV development, and today we hear that they are seeking a partner. Back in 2009, Panasonic teamed up with Sumitomo to jointly-develop OLED TVs, based on Sumitomo's P-OLED materials and technology, but we do not think this partnership is still in place. There are reports that Panasonic decided to establish a Gen-6 OLED TV pilot production line in their Himeji LCD plant. The investment will total around ¥20-30 billion ($245-370 million).
Samsung: we're getting "huge" orders for flexible OLED panelsSamsung Electronics Vice Chairman Kwon Oh-hyun says that Samsung is getting "huge" orders from other electronic makers for flexible OLED panels. Kwon re-confirms the plan to produce flexible OLEDs in 2012. According to reports, Samsung has converted several OLED lines for flexible panels, and these lines will produce 960,000 OLED "sheets" by the end of year (it's not clear what is meant by a "sheet", and whether this is a monthly or yearly capacity).
The same reports also suggest that Apple may be behind those "huge" orders. We do know that Apple is interested in flexible OLEDs, but it doesn't seem likely that they are actually planning to start using these displays soon. In any case the first "flexible" OLEDs will probably not be really flexible. They will be plastic based though, which means that they are quite shutterproof, in addition to being thin and light. It will also be possible to fix them on curved surfaces.
Nippon Seiki enters the OLED lighting market, starts to make low-cost panelsNippon Seiki has entered the OLED lighting market, and is already producing and offering "low-priced" panels. Low cost is relative of course - the 90x90 mm panel costs ¥8,000 ($100). The company is now offering samples because they want to get user feedback to improve the technology and products.
NS are currently offering three kinds of panels: a 90x90 mm square, a 280x38 rectangle and a 140x38 mm rectangle. All the panels are 1.9mm thick and feature 30,000 hours lifetime (LT70). The brightness is 1,000 cd/m2 (maximum 3,000 cd/m2) with color temperatures of either 3,000K or 5,000K.
Fraunhofer to show an evaluation kit of their OLED see-through data eye-glassesThe Fraunhofer Institute has been showing their bi-directional OLED microdisplays for quite some time, and today they said that during SID 2012 they will unveil an evaluation kit of their see-through data eye-glasses for the first time. Fraunhofer's glasses are made from monochrome VGA bi-directional OLED microdisplays and use special eyetracking algorithms.
We don't have more technical details yet, but the 2011 demo unit inlcuded a monochrome AMOLED display (320x240) and a 160x120 monochrome camera. The brightness was 15,000 cd/m² and the chip size was 0.6" diagonal. Back then they said they are working on higher resolution displays (VGA and above) and smaller chip sizes (0.5"). So indeed the resolution is now higher (VGA).
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