Global shipments of portable monitors rose 46 percent in 2019 and are forecast to grow by another 27 percent this year as more users become aware of the efficiency and productivity gains made possible by mobile displays, IHS Markit emailed Thursday. Portable monitor shipments totaled 262,000 in 2019, and will grow to 331,000 this year, it forecast. The slim, lightweight displays act as adjuncts to mobile devices including notebook PCs, smartphones and videogame systems. They have screen sizes and resolutions similar to 15-inch notebook PC displays, but portable monitors weigh under 2 pounds and are just over a quarter-inch thick, with newer models featuring USB-C connections. 5G is expected to create additional mobile productivity needs, said analyst Jeff Lin.

New advances in cinema and home theater will be shown at CES next week in Las Vegas. Elite Screens will demonstrate the Saker Tab-Tension CLR2, an electric motorized ceiling and ambient light-rejecting projection screen for ultra short-throw projectors designed to mitigate washout effects of interior room lighting. Elite Screens will be in Venetian Suite 30-120. CJ 4DPLEX, exhibiting at the international tech show for the first time, will launch its multisensory theater concept, designed to let the audience connect with movies via motion-based seating and signature effects. The format is in use in 723 theaters across 65 countries, said the company. At CES, the company will unveil a next-generation immersive movie theater experience, it said. The company's ScreenX uses the full auditorium space to provide a panoramic glasses-free movie-viewing experience, it said. 4DX uses all five senses, it said, allowing the audience to connect with movies through motion, water, wind, snow, lightning, scents and other special effects that enhance the on-screen visuals. It also incorporates motion-based seating synchronized with more than 22 different effects, maximizing the feeling of immersion within the movie. It will demonstrate the experience in South Hall 1, Booth #20918. Vava will demo its $2,799 4K ultra short-throw projector that provides a 150-inch image seven inches from the wall, it said. The company will be in Venetian Suite 30-139.

Consumer shopper site DealNews encouraged consumers considering an OLED TV purchase to wait a year when “OLEDs will become a lot more cost-competitive as manufacturing expenses decrease.” The Thursday blog post cited an IHS report from June saying inkjet-printed OLED display technology is set to enter mass production in 2020, with capacity to rise 12-fold through 2024. It suggested OLED TV prices could drop 15-25 percent next year. Thursday, a 55-inch LG B9 series OLED TV was selling for $1,299 at Best Buy, $100 off list.

LG previewed Ultra series 2020 monitors slated for introduction at CES that are targeted to professionals and gamers. The 32-inch UltraFine Ergo 4K UHD monitor has a one-cable USB-C solution that delivers 4K images, fast data transfer and power, said LG. Instead of a traditional monitor stand base, the Ergo comes with a desk clamp to free up room, LG said. The company’s UltraGear 27-inch 4K UHD monitor has a 1-millisecond Nano in-plane switching (IPS) display with a 144 Hz refresh rate, said to be over-clockable to 160 Hz and validated as Nvidia G-Sync-compatible. Hardware calibration allows users to achieve precise color reproduction, it said. A DisplayPort cable provides support for VESA display stream compression for virtually lossless performance when handling 4K images, it said. LG will also show at CES a 38-inch curved ultrawide QHD Plus monitor; the 3,840 x 1,600 model has a 1-millisecond Nano IPS display with a 144 Hz refresh rate, also Nvidia G-Sync-compatible.

U.S. technology supplier Rohinni launched a joint venture with Chinese panel maker BOE to develop mini and micro LED-based displays, said the companies Thursday. BOE Pixey, as the JV will be called, will design and build LCD display backlights, direct-emission displays and display-related sensors for high-performance TVs, video walls and other “large-format end products,” they said. BOE Pixey will kick off officially at CES, “with demos that will offer visitors a glimpse of the future of high-performance display products,” they said.

Samsung Display leapfrogged BOE in Q3 to reclaim the top position in the global smartphone display market, as the company capitalized on record-high demand for AMOLED panels, reported IHS Markit Thursday. Samsung Display took 29 percent share in smartphone display-panel shipments, up from 21.3 percent in Q3, said IHS. Smartphone AMOLED shipments were 146 million units in Q3, a 57 percent increase from Q2, it said. The AMOLED boom squares with the recent observations of photo mask supplier Photronics. It said demand had strengthened much more rapidly than previously expected and that it does a “vibrant Korean business” in AMOLED photomasks through its largest customer, Samsung Display (see 1912110011).

The industry is having “mid-single digit” sales growth in the TV category for 2019, with the screen sizes of sets sold averaging about an inch and a half larger than in 2018, Corning Chief Financial Officer Tony Tripeny told a Barclays investor conference Thursday. That’s “pretty consistent with what we expected at the beginning of the year” in terms of “glass volume,” he said. “The preliminary information that we've had on Black Friday has been pretty positive.” Sales of TVs 55 inches and larger are up more than 40 percent this year, he said. Sales of sets 70 inches and larger are up more than 60 percent, he said. Meeting the demand for large TV screen sizes “is what has driven the industry to invest in these Gen 10.5 factories,” which are optimized for 65- and 75-inch sets, he said. Though there has been “a little bit of a slowdown in panel-maker utilization,” Corning is “confident” the situation “works itself out in the first half of next year,” he said. Corning is “supplying most of the Gen 10.5 glass,” said Tripeny. “It's a great strategic story.”

Samsung Display applied for a U.S. trademark on the name “SAMOLED” for a series of flat-panel display applications, including smartphone screens, Patent and Trademark Office records show. Display Supply Chain Consultants CEO Ross Young speculated the trademark is to coin and protect a name for Samsung’s active-matrix OLED smartphone displays “since they likely believe they have a quality advantage” over competitive panel makers like BOE and LG Display “and want to justify their premium for their panels,” Young emailed. “It would also be a way for their customers to justify higher prices for their OLEDs vs. OLEDs from BOE or LGD as it should command a premium from their customers in the market. Like Intel Inside, etc.” Samsung Display, which supplies panels for Samsung-branded smartphones and for iPhones, didn’t comment.

“Abstract summaries” are due Sunday for papers to be delivered at the technical symposium of the Display Week 2020 conference, said the Society for Information Display Monday. Augmented and virtual reality, machine learning and printed displays are “special topics of interest” for the 2020 symposium, said SID. Display Week opens June 7 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco for a six-day run.

Samsung Display leapfrogged BOE in Q3 to retake top global smartphone display-panel share on “record-high demand” for AMOLED screens, reported IHS Markit Monday. Samsung had 29 percent of smartphone display shipments, leaping 7.7 points from Q2. Samsung last was top in 2018's Q4. All major smartphone brands “have adopted AMOLED technology in their high-end models in 2019,” the researcher said. Samsung leveraged its reputation as the highest-quality and highest-capacity supplier of AMOLEDs to capitalize on that demand, it said. Smartphone AMOLED panel shipments totaled 146 million units in Q3, a 57 percent increase from Q2, said IHS.