JOLED announced today that it signed an agreement with Screen Finetech Solutions and Panasonic Production Engineering to co-develop, manufacture and sale printing equipment for large-area OLED production (mostly OLED TVs).

The three companies aim to quickly commercialize a new business that will be based on JOLED's manufacturing technology. JOLED plans to license its inkjet printing technology to OLED makers. JOLED has been developing its technology in collaboration with Panasonic since its founding in 2015. JOLED's technology was originally developed in Panasonic at around 2006.

Display Supply Chain Consultants (DSCC) says that in Q1 2018 OLED revenues dropped 33% compared to Q4 2017 (but grew 39% compared to Q1 2017) and amounted to $5.9 billion. DSCC says that OLED revenues will decline further in Q2 2018 but will recover in the second half of 2018. Full-year revenues are expected to reach $26.95 billion, while the market will reach $57.2 billion by 2022.

Samsung Electronics was the top OLED customer in the first quarter, and together with Apple (#2) the two companies consumer 79% of all OLED panels by revenue.

Panasonic announced its new OLED TVs for 2018, the FZ800 and FZ950. Both TVs offer the same 55" and 65" 4K WRGB (LGD) OLED panels, and feature Panasonic's latest HCX processor, dynamic LUTs, Dolby Vision, HDR10+, Dynamic Scene Optimizer and extreme 2.5% calibration levels.

The FZ800 comes with built-in speakers, while the FZ950 offers a Technics-branded 80 Watt Dynamic Blade soundbar.

A few day go JOLED announced that it started commercial shipments of its 21.6" 4K OLED panels for use in medical monitors, in its low-volume 4.5-Gen ink-jet printing production line.

Following JDI's decision to halt its plans to increase its stake at JOLED, the company is now seeking to raise $900 million to support its plan to start mass producing OLEDs in 2019. According to a report from Japan the company has received commitments from Sony and Panasonic and both Sumitomo Chemical (who supplies its PLED materials to JOLED) and Screen Holdings (who supplies its equipment to JOLED) are likely to take part in the financing round as well.

Panasonic is demonstrating a new transparent 4K OLED TV prototype at the IFA 2017 exhibition. Panasonic did not reveal any commercialization plans or any technical details on this prototype.

Last year at IFA Panasonic demonstrated a new transparent display, showing several use cases for this technology - in wine refrigerators, in living room cabinets and more. Back then I wondered whether it was an OLED as reported - but now Panasonic specifically says this is an OLED panel. The 2016 prototype had an FHD resolution, so this year is certainly an improvement.

JOLED announced that it started to sample 21.6" 4K OLED monitors. These monitors, demonstrated in March 2017, feature a 3840x2160 resolution (204 PPI), a brightness of 350 cd/m² and a contrast ratio of 1,000,000 : 1. The panel thickness is 1.3 mm and the weigh is 500 grams.

JOLED aims to start mass producing these panels in 2019, but will also attempt to sell these to the medical market even in low-volume production out of its current 4.5-Gen pilot production line.

JOLED (Japan OLED) was established in August 2014 by Japan Display, Sony and Panasonic with an aim to become an OLED medium display (10-30 inch) producer. The company is aiming to start mass production in 2019, although some panels may ship in limited volume earlier.

Last week at Cebit 2017 JOLED demonstrated some of its latest OLED prototypes. In the photo above you can see JOLED's 21.6" 4K (3840x2160, 204 PPI) "medical applications" monitor. JOLED also demonstrated what seems to be the same panel for "consumer" application (they call this private viewing). The whole panel weighs just 500 grams and the color gamut is 130% sRGB.

Panasonic announced that it has developed a new IPS LCD panel that achieves a high-contrast ratio of over 1,000,000:1, 600 times better than conventional LCDs. panasonic developed new light modulating cells that permit pixel-by-pixel control of backlight intensity.

Panasonic says that these new displays will be suitable for high-end monitors for broadcasting, video production, medical, automotive, and other fields. The company will start shipping samples in January 2017, produced at the company's 8.5-Gen production lines that are capable of manufacturing 10- to 100-inch products.

Panasonic demonstrated a new transparent display, showing several use cases for this technology - in wine refrigerators, in living room cabinets and more.

According to reports, this is Panasonic's 2nd gen transparent displays. The first generation displays were LCD (LED) based displays, but the company was not happy with the quality of the display and the low transparency. Changing to an OLED display resulted in better transparency and great images - virtually indistinguishable from non transparent TVs.

Sony and Panasonic announced several new cameras that sport OLED viewfinders. The three new cameras all use XGA OLED microdisplays (probably the same microdisplay).

First up we have Sony's a99 Mark II, a high-end 42.9-mp A-mount SLT camera that features 4K video capture, 5-axis image stabilization, 79 AF points and a newly designed shutter. The a99 Mark II will ship in November 2016 for $3,200 (body only).