OLED News - Page 1

Yesterday Motorola started shipping its $1,500 foldable OLED phone, the Razr 2019. The Razr 2019 features a 6.2" 2142x876 (21:9) foldable AMOLED display that folds inside, produced by BOE. There's also a regular external 2.7" 600x800 AMOLED used when the phone is closed.

Initial reviews are appearing online. Android Central's Nirave Gondhia tested one such phone, and he says that the Razr's screen feels fragile, even more so than the screen of his Galaxy Fold. While he likes how the device folds, he says that as the screen shifts along the hinge, the feedback on the screen feel strange and it feels as if the screen could be damaged by the folding over the long term.

Taiwan's AU Optronics says that while the company still produces OLED displays, and has the capacity to mass produce flexible OLEDs as well, the company sees the flexible (and foldable) OLED market still at an "initial stage in terms of market acceptance and cost structure", and the company does not have any plans at the moment to invest in further OLED capacity.

AUO says that it has "accumulated its OLED expertise for quite some time" - and indeed AUO has been developing transparent OLEDs for AR applications, foldable displays and has lately started to invest in ink-jet printing processes.

In December 2019 Cadillac announced that its 2021 Escalade will sport a 38-inch curved OLED display. Rumors suggested that LG is the producer of this display, and indeed Cadillac now unveiled the car and its next-generation display - and LG confirmed that this is indeed its P-OLED screen.

The displays, which will come standard on all 2021 Escalde versions, include an instrument cluster and infotainment systems, and enable several customizable displays which include AR navigation and night vision modes. There are actually three different displays - from left to right a 7" display, an 14" one and a 16.9" display. The center 14" is the instrument cluster and it is not-touch enabled (the other two do include touch).

Photonics-based solutions provider Coherent reported its financial results for Q4 2019 - with revenues of $320.8 million, and a net profit of $5.8 million. The company says that these are encouraging results, and full-year outlook is improving.

Coherent's display orders were up significantly for LineBeam systems and service. These systems orders are all destined to China, and the increase in service orders "reflects higher demand for OLED-equipped smartphones in Q4 2019". Orders for OLED cutting using short pulse and CO₂ lasers were also up.

In August 2017, Japan Display announced a last-resort strategic focus on OLED displays as the Japanese display maker failed to shift to OLED displays in time. Since then JDI was busy trying to raise the funds needed to construct a large-scale OLED fab, raising $430 million from Oasis Management group and one of its customers (likely to be Apple).

As was discussed earlier, JDI now confirmed that Ichigo Asset Management will invest up to 100.8 billion yen (around $925 million) in JDI, and secure a stake of over 50% in JDI.

LG Display posted its financial results for Q4 2019, with a lower-than-expected loss of $361.6 million and revenues of $5.4 billion - a 10% increase over last quarter, driven by a rise in sales of OLED TVs and smartphone OLEDs.

LGD has given an optimistic forecast for 2020 as it sees higher demand for its OLED TV and mobile P-OLED panels. LGD expects its OLED TV panel revenue to "rise steeply" as its Guangzhou OLED TV fab increases its production - LGD now says it expects the fab to start mass production in March 2020.