According to reports from Japan, Taiwan's Hon Hai (Foxconn) is establishing an OLED R&D center in Japan with an aim to start AMOLED panel production in 2015. Hon Hai is in talks with Sharp's Sakai Display Product (SDP) large-size LCD production base. SDP is jointly operated by Hon Hai and Sharp.

According to the report, Hon Hai understand it needs to catch up with the leading Korean OLED makers and is so looking to tap into Japan's technical experienced personnel. Hon Hai expects to recruit around 20 OLED related employees during 2013, and this will grow to around 40 employees during the next three years.

Guangzhou New Vision Optoelectronics (NVO) developed a flexible 4.8" AMOLED display. This full-color panel is only 100 microns thick and weighs just one gram. This panel uses an Ln-IZO backplane and a Polyimide substrate.

NVO developed their own Ln-IZO (Lithium-Niobate Indium-Zinc-Oxide) technology and they say that that it performs better than IGZO as it has higher electron mobility and stability and it is easier to process.

Samsung acquired Novaled for €260 million (almost $350 million). The deal is actually rather complicated - Samsung Electronics will acquire 40% of the company, Samsung's Cheil Industries will acquire 50% while the remaining 10% is held by Samsung Venture Investment. The €260 million includes a €30 million contingent payment, which is conditional to reaching certain milestones.

This puts an end to a long saga which began in early 2012 when Novaled filed for an IPO. This didn't go through and then in March 2013 Novaled was almost bought by Korea's Doosan. Later on it was reported that Cheil Industries are interested in the company and today the deal was signed.

Universal Display announced their financial results for Q2 2013. Revenues were $49.4 million and net income was $15.4 million - this was higher than expected and was driven by high green materials (emitter and host) sales to Samsung (green was finally adopted for the GS4). UDC says material sales grew 111% compared to Q2 2012 to $12.8 million, and royalty and license fees were up 37% (to $21.2 million, out of which $20 million were from SDC).

UDC said it expects full-year results to reach the high-end of its previous forecast - which was $110-125 million.

Rolic and Roth & Rau agreed to jointly develop system solutions for the organic electronics and display market. The partnership will bring together Rolic’s competences in materials and device fabrication and Roth & Rau’s expertise in integrated process equipment.

In the first stage of this agreement, the two companies will offer barrier and encapsulation technologies. for flexible OLEDs, OPVs and other flexible organic electronics. Roth & Roe's R&D facility is close by to Rolic's newly established OLED-focused technical center in Eindhoven and they both hope that this will enable to quickly bring their joint solutions to the market.

DisplaySearch published a new edition of their Quarterly OLED Materials Report. They forecast that OLED material revenues will reach $529 million in 2013, and will grow at a fast CAGR of 67% to reach $3.4 billion in 2017. Most of the revenue growth will come from OLED TV materials.

DisplaySearch estimates that AMOLED phone panel shipments will reach over 217 million units in 2013 (up from 134 million in 2012), which will lead to a very tight supply towards the end of 2013. The total OLED market will reach $11 billion in 2013.

In early 2013, LG Chem announced that they will start mass producing flexible OLED lighting panels in July 2013. Now the company updates us that they upgraded the panels (to 55 lm/W, up from 45 lm/W) and have delayed mass production to Q4 2013.

LG Chem also planned to release 80 lm/W rigid OLED lighting panels (these will be by far the most efficients OLED panels), but these too will be delayed to Q4. On the other hand, by the end of this month the company will launch new 3000K panels. In fact LG Chem will release 3000K versions of all its current panels (53x55 mm, 100x100 mm, 140x140 mm and 200x50 mm) - which all feature 55-60 lm/W and a high CRI (over 90). LG Chem's current panels all feature a color temperature of 4000K.

Samsung just sent out invitations for their Samsung Unpacked 2013 episode 2 event - which will take place on September 4 (7 PM in Germany). Check out the invitation below, it's highly likely they will unveil the Galaxy Note 3 phone:

In past months we had several reports and rumors with information on the Note 3 displays. Some say it will have a plastic-based flexible OLED while others claim it will have an LCD display. Some reports suggest that Samsung will actually release several Note 3 variants with different displays. We only have one month to wait, but my own estimate is that it will have a 6-inch "regular" Super AMOLED display.

Display Daily posted an interesting article about the consumer-electronics industry, showing how Apple and Samsung are clearly leading this market, both in revenues and in income. I think this is a great post and this chart tells the story the best:

The author speculates that if current trends continue then LG will catch up with Samsung and Apple. In fact, if Apple's next iPad and iPhone product fail to become a hit, LG may replace Apple as the 2nd place consumer electronic company. It will be interesting to see whether OLED TV and flexible OLED panels, which will be dominated probably by LG and Samsung in the near short term, will help the Korean companies establish their leading positions even further.

On June 23rd we reported that LG's curved 55" OLED TV are now available in the US, exclusively through Magnolia stores inside Best Buy for $14,999. Today LG announced that the first 55EA9800 OLED TVs have been delivered to consumers. LG says that since the TVs went on sales, they have been "purchased by early-adopter consumers across the country, from Texas to Minnesota to Oregon". So they sold at least three sets...

LG also announced that it will display its flat 55" OLED TV (the 55EM9700) in lounges and open areas at 45 international airports around the world this month. LG will start with Tokyo's Narita Airport (which also, by the way, hosts a 9.6x1.5 meter curved Mitsubishi Diamond Vision OLED display) and will then offer it in more cities such as New York, Berlin, Dubai and Bangkok. The 55EM9700 is currently shipping in Korea for around $10,000 and in the UK for around $15,000.