In January 2015 BMW demonstrated a new concept car, the M4 Concept Iconic Lights that features a new OLED-based tail light (with OLEDs made by OSRAM). The rearlights use yellow and red OLED lighting panels arranged in a 3D structure.

Today BMW released the nice video you see above, showing the Iconc Lights car concept in action. It's great to see the BMW designers so excited about OLED and the possibilities this new technology brings.

LG Display recently upgraded their OLED TV production capacity to 14,000 Gen-8 panels in a month, which will enable them to produce around 600,000 TVs in 2015. A company official told CNet that they currently cannot meet the demand for OLED TVs, and they "cannot build OLED TVs fast enough".

LG currently sees OLED as a way to gain brand perception - as "OLED equals LG equals great televisions". It seems the company is not in a rush to reduce prices as they want to have a premium price and perception for their OLED TV range, which also explains why they are currently focusing on 4K OLEDs and not FHD ones.

Today's personal OLED interview features Barry Young - probably the guy who knows most about OLEDs in the world. If you wish to be featured next, contact us here!

Barry is the CEO of the OLED Association - "We help to promote the OLED industry by preparing white papers on the technology, making marketing presentations, briefing the financial industry and lobbying governments. We share leadership in the OLED Coalition with NGLIA in order to promote OLED lighting in North America".

Taiwan's AU Optronics developed a new 1.4" circular AMOLED display, aimed for smart watches. AUO did not disclose the resolution of this display. AUO will be the second circular OLED maker - LG Display is currently producing 1.3" (320x320) circular plastic based AMOLED displays, used in their G Watch R smartphone.

AUO has been struggling with AMOLED production for years, but finally in August 2014 the company started mass production. The company currently offers four panels. Please contact us if you want to find a supplier for these OLEDs:

US-based Light Polymers announced a new coating material that improves the contrast and readability of OLED displays in bright sunlight. The material is based on the company's lyotropic liquid crystals, and can be coated on substrates such as TAC, acrylic and initially COP. The company also plans to enable reverse dispersion coatings directly on the OLED panel glass.

OLED behave quite poorly in bright ambient light - due to the reflective metal transistors. There are some solutions of course (Samsung's Super AMOLED and Nokia's Clear Black Display technologies are two examples) - and Light Polymers says that their solution is lower-cost, and can be coated directly on the OLED panel - something that cannot be done with other technologies.

Samsung will start shipping the Galaxy S6 and its curved-display variant the Galaxy S6 Edge in the US next week, and the reviews are in. Engadget says that the GS6 is Samsung's best phone ever, and the display is absolutely gorgeous. We're not surprised - we already know that the new Super AMOLEDs are best mobile displays ever.

Both the GS6 and the GS6 Edge sport a 5.1" 2560x1440 (577 PPI) super AMOLED display, curved on both edges on the S6 Edge. Engadget says it the curved flexible OLED looks very cool - but as expected it is not very useful.

Amazon is now offering LG's 55EA9800 OLED TV (2013 model) for only $1,999. That's the lowest price ever for an OLED TV at Amazon.com. The EA9800 was replaced in 2014 by the 55EC9300 (which is now on sale on Amazon for $2,999). Both TVs use a curved 55" Full-HD OLED panel.

LG also offers the 55EG9600 curved 55" 4K OLED TV (2015 model), which is listed at Amazon for $5,499 but not shipping yet.

According to IHS, the OLED TV market will see slow growth unless producers manage to apply new technologies - mainly printing processes based on soluble materials and flexible substrates. If both technologies are to be adopted, IHS sees OLED TV shipments reaching almost 40 million units in 2023.

In the chart above, IHS Uses three cases. In Case 1, OLED TV makers use glass substrate and an evaporation process. In case 2 they adopt a printing process and soluble materials, and Case 3 assumes a flexible substrate is used as well.

As rumored two weeks ago, Samsung Display (SDC) decided to split its LCD and OLED business unit. SDC was formed in 2012 as a merger between Samsung Mobile Display and S-LCD, in an attempt to streamline operations, and this new split undoes that 2012 union. We still do not know the names of the new divisions.

It is reported that this move aims to reshape the sales and marketing strategies, as each unit have a different focus - the LCD one is mostly selling to TVs, monitors and tablets while OLEDs target mobile phones. But we know that SDC also sells OLEDs to tablets and some reports suggest that Samsung will soon re-enter the OLED TV market (OLED monitors and laptops aren't here yet, sadly).

Magneti Marelli Automotive Lighting designed a new OLED based automobile rearlight prototype, that uses Philips red and amber OLED lighting panels. The prototype also includes LEDs for the reverse function. When off, the OLED elements appear to be a silvery mirror and are "extremely elegant".

The OLED prototype received the "Red Dot" award for design quality. The "Red Dot Award" for product design was established in 1955 as is one of the most coveted product design awards at an international level.