According to SonyInsider, Sony will launch a new touchscreen Walkman player at CES 2009.The player will have 16/32GB memory and Wi-Fi. The display will be a 3" Touchscreen AMOLED (WQVGA).

This is interesting news as Sony stated they will only develop OLEDs for TVs, not smaller panels (perhaps they will buy the panels from Samsung or CMEL?).

The player will include special YouTube support, direct connection to Amazon to purchase CDs and an FM radio.

The Cowon S9 Curve saga continues - at first it was supposed to be released in December 2009. Then it got delayed (according to rumors...) to 2009.

Now it seems that it got an official UK release date - Decemeber 15th. The Cowon S9 will be priced at £169 ($252) for the 8GB and £199 ($297) for the 16GB. We also got a nice new photo of the display.

The S9 curve has a touchscreen 3.3" (480x272) AMOLED display. It also has a 500Mhz dual-core CPU, bluetooth, FM radio, TV out and a USB2 connector.

Via Slashgear

UPDATE: Engadget reports that the player will hit the US in December 19th... The price will be 199$ for the 8GB, and 240$ for the 16GB version.

DisplaySearch released their "Quarterly OLED Shipment and Forecast Report".

OLED-Info readers get a 5% discount.

DisplaySearch reports that the worldwide OLED display revenue in Q3’08 was US$141 million, down 11% Q/Q but up 60% Y/Y.

Chi Mei EL, the #2 supplier of AMOLED displays, posted record high shipments in Q3’08, while the leading AMOLED supplier Samsung SDI—which will merge with Samsung Electronics’ small/medium business to form Samsung Mobile Display in January—experienced lower shipments Q/Q. As a result, AMOLED shipments increased only slightly compared to Q2’08, reaching 1.7 million units.

After a strong Q2, PMOLED shipments were affected by reductions in mobile phone sub-display orders, so shipments fell 22% Q/Q. However, most of the shipment reduction was in monochrome PMOLED, while area color and full color PMOLED gained popularity. This led to an increase in average selling price for OLEDs in Q3’08.

DisplaySearch analyzes the dynamic of OLED display industry: shipments by each supplier; AMOLED vs. PMOLED; small molecule vs. polymer; monochrome vs. area color vs. full color; and shipments by application, such as mobile phone main display, sub-display, MP3, auto console, car audio, digital still camera, near-eye, TV and others.

RiTdisplay passed Samsung SDI to take the lead in total OLED shipments with 36% market share. Samsung SDI is #2 in shipments, but still the leader in total OLED revenues thanks to its AMOLED shipments. TDK passed Pioneer to become #3 in shipments at 17%, while Pioneer fell to the #4 position at 12%; Univision was #5. The top five suppliers accounted for over 95% of total OLED shipments in Q3’08, as shown in the following table:

Table 1: Top Five OLED Suppliers and Share in Q3’08

HP and the Flexible Display Center (FDC) at Arizona State University (ASU) today announced the first prototype of affordable, flexible electronic displays.

The unbreakable displays were created by the FDC and HP using self-aligned imprint lithography (SAIL) technology invented in HP Labs, HP’s central research arm. SAIL is considered self aligned because the patterning information is imprinted on the substrate in such a way that perfect alignment is maintained regardless of process-induced distortion.

SAIL technology enables the fabrication of thin film transistor arrays on a flexible plastic material in a low-cost, roll-to-roll manufacturing process. This allows for more cost-effective continuous production, rather than batch sheet-to-sheet production.

The first practical demonstration of the flexible displays was achieved through collaborative efforts between the FDC and HP as well as other FDC partners including DuPont Teijin Films and E Ink. To create this display, the FDC produces stacks of semiconductor materials and metals on flexible Teonex® Polyethylene Naphthalate (PEN) substrates from DuPont Teijin Films.

HP then patterns the substrates using the SAIL process and subsequently integrates E Ink’s Vizplex™ imaging film to produce an actively addressed flexible display on plastic. E Ink’s Vizplex bi-stable electrophoretic imaging film enables images to persist without applied voltage, thereby greatly reducing power consumption for viewing text.

We recently had the pleasure of interviewing Mr. Steven Van Slyke (R&D directory) and Dr. Yuan-Sheng Tyan, a Research Fellow from Kodak's OLED systems. We talked about OLED lighting, what is Kodak's plan for this market, and how they see OLED lighting in the future. We also got a nice new prototype image from them (to the right).

Kodak also has some updates on their white light research - just 6 months after reporting 55lm/W efficiency, Kodak are now saying they have fabricated new devices that exceed 60lm/W. It seems like OLED lighting is really advancing quickly now.

Read the full interview

Cambridge Display Technology (CDT) will develop a new technology to make OLED backplanes, together with Semprius. The new tech will be integrated into CDT's 14-inch development line at Godmanchester campus, near Cambridge, UK.

Semprius has a technology for semiconductor printing, and the two companies will use the technology in the manufacturing of OLED backplanes.

Last month we reported that the Cowon S9 will be available in December in the US - but now it seems that Cowon is delaying the launch because of problems in production. In Korea they still hope to ship it in December.

The S9 curve has a touchscreen 3.3" (480x272) AMOLED display. It also

has a 500Mhz dual-core CPU, bluetooth, FM radio, TV out and a USB2

connector. In korea it has a T-DMB, but this won't work in the US.

Back in June I interviewed Mr. Corey Hewitt and Dr. James Buntaine from Kodak OLED Systems. Now the nice guys at Kodak agreed to another interview - this one is focused on OLED for lighting, and I talked to Mr. Steven Van Slyke (R&D directory) and Dr. Yuan-Sheng Tyan, a Research Fellow. So first of all, let's introduce them properly:

Mr. Steven Van Slyke, R&D Director, Kodak OLED Systems 

Steven Van Slyke received his Bachelors degree in Chemistry from Ithaca College and Masters degree in Materials Science from Rochester Institute of Technology.  He joined Eastman Kodak Research Laboratories in 1979 where his work has centered on OLEDs. He has been active in all phases of OLED technology, from basic research on organic materials to development of manufacturing technologies for high volume OLED display production. Mr. Van Slyke is recognized as a co-inventor of small-molecule organic light emitting diodes and is a leading authority on OLED technology. He has published and presented over 40 papers and holds 36 patents in the areas of OLED materials and device architecture.

The CombOLED project launched a new OLED design contest. The idea is to use thin, efficient and transparent OLED lighting panels to make an OLED lamp, preferably in one of those fields - mood lighting / emotional lighting, static signage or low-content information display.

They defined three possible categories - students, professionals, and people who attend the CombOLED workshops. You have to be quick, though - they will only accept applications until the end of January 2009. The three winners for each category will get a cash prize (€3,000 for the student, €7,000 for the professional and €5,000 for the workshop attendee). The ranking will be based on several factors:

Samsung says that its PMOLED business is losing its profitability, so they have to consider their option. They think they will change the production from PMOLED panels to OLED lighting panels. Another option is to shut down those lines.

Samsung already began R&D on white-light OLEDs, saying that it won't take a large investment to turn the production lines into white-light panels.