Visionox demonstrated several new flexible OLED prototypes and technologies at a Trade Show in China. First up is the 7.2" foldable AMOLED display you see below. Last month we reported that Visionox developed this display, which can withstand over 200,000 cycles.

Visionox also demonstrated a 3.35" flexible AMOLED, an OLED with an fingerprint sensor under-the-display, a flexible silver-nanowire based touch panel and the company's 6.21" notch-type smartphone display.

Today we published new versions of our market reports - that cover the flexible, transparent, VR/AR, microdisplays, automotive and graphene OLED markets. OLED-Info provides comprehensive niche OLED market reports, and our reports cover everything you need to know about the niche market, and can be useful if you want to understand how the OLED industry works and what this technology can provide for your own industry. The reports are now updated to April 2018.

The OLED for VR/AR Market Report:

• Why OLEDs are adopted in almost all VR HMDs
• What kind of displays are required for VR and AR applications
• What the future holds for the VR and AR markets
• Current and future VR and AR systems

The report package provides a great introduction to the emerging VR and AR market, and details the role that OLED displays will have. Read more here!

Everdisplay is producing a range of AMOLED displays, for smartphones and wearables, and we have added three new EDO displays to our OLED Marketplace.

The three new displays are a 0.95" 180x120 AMOLED, a round 1.19" 390x390 AMOLED and a rectangular 1.41" 320x360 AMOLED. Let us know if you are interested in acquiring these displays!

In September 2018 Taiwan's ITRI institute demonstrated a foldable AMOLED display prototype. The company now released this nice video showing the new display:

This AMOLED display, according to ITRI, is "rapidly approaching commercial standards". The panels are abrasion-resistant and folding resistant, and can be folded up to 200,000 times with a folding radius of 3 mm. The panels can also withstand being subjected to 1 kg of steel wool friction over 50,000 times.

The Fraunhofer FEP, together with VTT and the Holst Center developed a new wearable OLED lighting bracelet, one of the first one of the first flexible organic electronic product to be produced at the European PI-SCALE pilot production line.

The yellow and red OLED deposition in this prototype was performed at the Fraunhofer FPP (which can handle both sheet-to-sheet and roll-to-roll processes), while the barrier web was produced at the Holst Centre. VTT integrated the OLEDs into the bracelet. Such a bracelet, with its low power consumption, could be used as a security device, as a fashion jewelry, and more.

While it's still not clear whether Apple plans to release two new OLED iPhone models in 2018 or just a single one, a new report from Bloomberg suggests that Apple is working on a new design that will use a curved OLED display in its future phones.

According to the report, the display will "curve inward gradually from top to bottom" - so this design will be different then Samsung's popular edge-type phones, maybe something similar to LG's old Flex phones. Bloomberg also says that this technology is "2-3 years away" which is a bit surprising - by then Apple is expected to adopt foldable displays.

LG Display halted production in some of its OLED and LCD lines in its Paju production base, following a fire that outside the construction site. No one was injured seriously, but nine workers were sent to the hospital.

The production lines were halted for 14 hours, but are no operation normally. LGD said it cannot estimate exact losses from the shutdown.

The Nikkei Asian Review reports that LG Display aims to increase its OLED TV production capacity to 10 million units by 2021 - which is six times its capacity in 2017 (1.7 million). Next year LGD aims to produce around 2.8 million OLED TVs. LGD's investment in new OLED TV capacity will reach $18 billion by 2020.

LG Display is enjoying a surge in demand for OLED TVs, and OLED TVs sales account for around half of its high-end TV sales (TVs with a price tag of over $2,000). In 2018 OLED's share in LGD's premium TV panes will grow to 70%. LG Display is confident it could even sell 20 million OLED TV panels each year, if it could make them. LG is "betting all on OLED" and minimizes its LCD investments as much as possible.

LG continues to roll out its new 2018 OLED TVs, and today Amazon.com started to ship the 55" OLEDE8 - for $3,300 ($200 lower than LG's official $3,499).

The OLEDE8 is a series (55" / 65") of high-end picture-on-glass 4K OLED TVs. The TVs are powered by LG's new a9 "intelligent processor" that promises better color and fast smart TV (webOS) operations. The TV will support Google's Assistant for natural language control, Dolby Atmos, HDR and 4K HFR.

One of our readers reported that during the Light + Building trade show earlier this month, an OSRAM official said that OSRAM is pulling out of the OLED lighting market, and the company will stop all OLED R&D immediately.

This is very unfortunate news. OSRAM is the supplier of OLED Lighting panels to Audi and BMW, and according to the OSRAM official the company will continue to provide product support for both automakers until 2020.