IVAAIU, a Korean architectural design firm has applied OLED lighting panels (made by LG Chem) to a traditional Korean Hanok house. OLEDs were chosen because they offer excellent light quality (no UV, high CRI, no glare) and can be installed while maintaining the buildings as is.

LG Chem tells us that they are currently seeking additional partnerships to further demonstrate the benefits that OLED lighting can bring to traditional architecture and heritage projects. It is great to see that OLED lighting can be used in such traditional settings - as it's actually the most natural light source currently in use.

It feels like I'm writing the same post over and over again - LG lowers the price of their OLED TV again... Only 7 days ago I posted that LG's 2013 OLED TV model, the 55EA9800 is down to $3,198. And I estimated that it's likely we'll see a 55" OLED TV for less than $3,000 very soon. Well! That did not take long. Amazon is now offering the EA9800 for only $2,799 via online retailer MCMelectronics.

LG recently launched their new 2014 55" curved FHD model (the 55EC9300) for $3,499. They probably do not produce the EA9800 no longer, so supply for the older model is probably limited. LG will also soon launch a 65" 4K OLED, and this one will cost $6,999.

Update: the first video was removed from YouTube and is no longer available

Winstar, a leading PMOLED producer from Taiwan, hosted a seminar in June 2014, and they gave two OLED lectures - describing their OLED products in the present and the future development expected from Winstar.

There's some interesting details in there. First of all, while Winstar is currently producing glass-based PMOLEDs, the company is also developing flexible PMOLED panels. One of the major challenges is encapsulation and Winstar is using ALD technology for this at the moment, developed in collaboration with ITRI.

LG announced their first-gen Android Wear smartwatch (the G Watch, which uses an LCD display) in March 2014, and the company is already reportedly getting ready to release the 2nd gen smartwatch next month during the IFA 2014 trade-show.

LG G Watch

According to Korea Times, the new G Watch 2 will adopt an OLED display, produced by LG Display. If this is true, it's highly likely that this is a flexible OLED. After all, LG Display does not produce non-flexible small OLED panels.

On March 2014 Motorola showed their first smartwatch, the beautiful Moto 360, and it will launch it on September 4th. It was widely speculated that it adopts an OLED panel - especially as it is always on and the battery drain on an LCD will be quite large.

But today Best Buy posted a product listing by mistake (they took it off-line a short while later) which revealed the Moto 360 specifications: and it uses a 1.5" 320x290 round LCD panel. This is quite a disappointment, I really hoped this beautiful time piece has an OLED display.

An OLED-Info reader recently raised the question - where are the OLED laptops and OLED monitors? This is an interesting question. Samsung currently produces AMOLEDs ranging in size from 1.63" for wearables to 10.5" tablet displays and LG Display is mass producing 55", 65" and even 77" OLED TVs.

Samsung 12.1 inch laptop prototype, 2009

It seems that technically there shouldn't be a problem producing 13-15 inch OLED panels for laptops or even 20-25 inch panels for monitors. In terms of pixel density, these panels will be simpler to make compared to Samsung's mobile phone panels. Even a 13" 4K laptop panel will require only 339 PPI - much lower than SDC's latest 5.1" QHD panels (577 PPI). And of course SDC can start with a 15" FHD panel (146 PPI) which is easier to produce.

SinoWealth, an IC developer from Shanghai, currently offers PMOLED drivers, but the company is now starting to develop AMOLED drivers as well.

In a statement to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, the company said that it is optimistic about an "explosive growth of the domestic AMOLED market in the next few years". The company also expects its AMOLED driver to be used in a future holographic phone.

Last month Japan Display, Sony and Panasonic announced the formation of a new OLED company. JOLED, funded by the Innovation Network Corporation of Japan, will be established formally in January 2015, and will focus mainly on medium sized OLEDs for tablet applications.

JDI 5.2-inch FHD OLED prototype

One of the key questions surrounding JOLED is the technology choice. While Sony (and JDI, which is basing its OLED program on Sony's tech) is using small-molecule OLEDs and an evaporation process, Panasonic based its OLED development on Sumitomo's PLED materials and printing technologies.

Korea's Ministry Of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) is launching a new OLED lighting industry support fund, with plans to invest 22 billion Won ($21.5 million) over the next five years. The project will kick start at the end of September 2014.

The new initiative is called OLED Lighting Industry Cluster Construction Business, and the MOTIE aims to help local companies kick start manufacturing processes, prototype production, standard and measurement systems, help with a comprehensive information network and marketing support, and more.

Samsung is set to release the Galaxy Note 4 mobile phone on September 3rd, and a new leak from Indonesia confirms previous reports saying that this new phone will sport a 5.7" QHD Super AMOLED display.

Some reports suggested that Samsung may release two Note 4 variants, one with a regular display and one with a curved one. A senior VP at Samsung Electronics even said that the Note 4 will have a "new form factor".