Wearable OLEDs - Introduction and Latest Industry News - Page 24

Ten days ago Apple unveiled the Apple Watch, their first smartwatch product. The company did not reveal the display technology - they just said it was a flexible Retina display. The Watch itself will only be released in "early 2015", and I thought we'd have a long time to wait before we know whether this is an OLED or LCD display.

But according to several sources, it is now confirmed that the Watch uses an OLED. I cannot disclose all the sources, but my trusted and knowledgeable friend Jennifer Colegrove from Touch Display Research says she's 100% sure it is an AMOLED (it is interesting that in June 2013 Jennifer forecasted that Apple will adopt an AMOLED in a product within 18 months, and she hit it right on the mark).

In March 2014, Vrvana (TRG back then) announced the Totem Virtual-Reality headset - a competitor to Oculus Rift's OLED-based HMD. After months in development, Vrvana launched a kickstarter campaign to raise $350,000. As of the time of writing, they raised almost $100,000 - with 28 days to go so this looks like a promising project.

The headset includes a Full-HD RGB-Stripe AMOLED display, HDMI input and 11 sensors (including 2 cameras and 3 gyros). It supports the Unreal, Unity, Havok and CryEngine engines, and can be used with a PC, A PS3/PS4 and Xbox One & 360. An early-bird edition via Kickstarter costs around $400.

Updated: it is now confirmed, Apple's Watch uses an AMOLED display!

So Apple did unveil their smartwatch yesterday! The simply called Apple Watch is a square-bodied touch-enabled smart watch, and you can see it below. It comes in three choices of materials (aluminum, stainless steel and 18-karat gold), includes four sensors, changeable straps and requires an iPhone to pair with. The most exciting feature seems to be the "Digital Crown" button navigator.

And the most interesting thing - Apple did not reveal the display type, besides saying that it is a "flexible Retina" display, and that the cover is sapphire. They didn't even detail the resolution or size of the display. To cut a long story short - I believe that Apple did not yet choose whether this is an LCD or an OLED. My explanation below...

With Apple's new product launch event due in four days, the web is buzzing with rumors. It seems that a new iPhone (two models, actually, 4.7" and 5.7") is pretty much confirmed, but what about the long-rumored iWatch?

The Wall Street Journal reports that the iWatch is indeed ready to launch, even though it will only ship in 2015. The smart timepiece will come in two sizes - and both will use curved (flexible) OLED displays. Other reported features are NFC and health/fitness sensors.

LG Electronics launched a new limited edition premium curved OLED TV with design support from Swarovski. The OLED TV offers "shimmering crystals complemented by the brilliant, precise colors of the OLED's self-lighting pixels": 

Strangely, this TV is based on LG's 2013 model, the 55EA9800 and not their newer 55EC9300 launched in 2014. Anyway, it includes about 460 luminescent Aurora Borealis crystals of three different sizes that were applied by hand using specially made stencils. LG did not say when they'll release the TV, but it'll probably be very expensive. The regular 55EA9800 is not in production anymore, but retailers still offer it - usually for less than $3,000.

A few days ago LG Electronics launched the beautiful G Watch R smartwatch, with its 1.3" (320x320) flexible plastic-based OLED panel. Today LG Display announced that it started mass producing those OLED panels.

While it was pretty clear that LGD is behind this flexible OLED, it's good to hear a formal confirmation. LG Display further tells us that the panel is less than 0.6 mm thick and features a 100% color gamut (not sure which standard is that), 300 nit peak luminance and of course an "unlimited" contrast ratio.

Asus announced their first Smart Watch - The ZenWatch. This is an Android Wear smart watch that features a 1.63" 320x320 AMOLED display, a 1.2 Ghz CPU, 512MB of RAM, 4GB of storage and a battery that should last over a day. It also features a heart rate sensor.

According to my sources, the AMOLED supplier is not Samsung Display (even though they also produce a 1.63" 320x320 OLED) but AU Optronics. If true this is the first commercial product that uses an AMOLED from AU Optronics (well, actually in 2006 AUO produced 2" AMOLEDs, but they stopped production shortly after and only resumed it in 2014).

Apple sent out press invitations to an event on September 9th. They did not say anything regarding this event, besides saying "wish we could say more". It is widely believed that Apple will reveal the iPhone 6 in this event. Apple's new phone is expected to come with a larger display (some say Apple will unveil two new models, one with a large 5.7" panel) - and it won't be an OLED.

Apple 2011 flexible OLED watch patent

But Apple may also surprise and finally unveil the iWatch smart watch wearable device. .Rumors have been circulating about this device for almost 2 years now. Most of these "reports" suggest a flexible OLED display, around 1.3 - 1.6 inch in size. LG Display is believed to be the exclusive supplier of this display, although there's some speculation that Apple wants Samsung Display to be its second supplier for those plastic-based flexible AMOLEDs.

Only three days ago I posted that both Samsung and LG are expected to launch new flexible OLED smart watches, and today both Korean companies pre-announced their new devices before the IFA trade show. Indeed they both used plastic-based flexible OLED panels.

So first up is the beautiful LG G Watch R (shown above) - a circular Android Wear smartwatch that use a 1.3" 320x320 (246 PPI) plastic (flexible) OLED panel. The G Watch R will launch in "early Q4 2014", price isn't disclosed yet.

The IFA 2014 event starts next week (on September 5th, in Berlin) and I think it's going to be a very interesting trade show.

We have three confirmed unveiling events for next week. Samsung will show the Galaxy Note 4. It's pretty much confirmed that the new large smartphone will use a 5.7" QHD Super AMOLED display, but some reports suggest Samsung will also show a premium variant with a curved flexible OLED panel (I don't think this is likely, but you never know).