Corning scored its first TV design win in China for the Iris glass-based light-guide plate technology it introduced at CES a year ago (see 1501090015), it said in a Tuesday announcement. Chinese brand LeTV is using Iris in its 70-inch TV called the Super TV Max 70, Corning said. Iris “is a key component for edge-lit technology because it distributes and directs light through the front of the TV, enabling vibrant pictures,” Corning said. “Historically, display designers have used plastic light-guide plates, which are highly susceptible to heat and humidity,” Corning said. “This leads to design trade-offs resulting in thicker sets and wider bezels.” Alternatively, Iris “not only becomes a third piece of glass in the TV design, but it also eliminates design compromises by offering optically pure glass, which is both dimensionally and thermally stable,” it said. “This enables brands and designers to achieve significantly thinner sets and bezels than were previously attainable using plastic.” Corning has said Iris-glass-based light-guide plates are 36 times stronger than acrylic and can enable TV set designs that are less than 5 mm thick (0.2 inches) at their thinnest point, making for a key competitive weapon for LCD TV in its battle against OLED.

Higher adoption of active-matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) panels by Samsung and other mobile phone makers helped push penetration of full high-definition (FHD) panels to 21 percent of the smartphone display market in Q3, an IHS report said. Increasing demand from Chinese smartphone makers and the iPhone 6s Plus also fueled growth in unit shipments of FHD panels, IHS said. AMOLED displays were 18 percent of all smartphone display unit shipments in Q3, up from 10 percent in the year-ago quarter, as Samsung Display began selling the panels to external customers including Gionee, Huawei, Lenovo, Meizu, Oppo and vivo in the second half 2015, IHS said. Samsung has relied on AMOLED as a key differentiating feature in its Galaxy smartphones for the past six years, promoting the technology’s color performance, on-cell touch technology and slimmer, lighter form factors. In addition, Google Nexus 6P, the Microsoft Lumia 950 XL and the recently announced BlackBerry Priv have AMOLED displays, David Hsieh, IHS analyst, noted. “The simpler structure and better picture performance of AMOLED screens may even encourage Apple to consider adopting the technology in the future,” Hsieh said. Meanwhile, shipments of 5-inch-and-larger displays surpassed those of smaller displays for the first time in Q3, IHS said. Unit shipments of 5-inch-and-larger displays grew 21 percent to reach 247 million units in Q3, as under-5-inch displays slipped to 156 million units, it said. Unit shipments of 5-inch smartphone panels jumped from 93 million in Q2 to 104 million in Q3, the first time 5-inch panel shipments topped 100 million units in a single quarter, IHS said. The iPhone 6s Plus and other larger smartphones made in China drove the 5.5-inch smartphone panel market to 79.8 million units in Q3, IHS said. Consumers may be reaching their smartphone size limit. Screen sizes of 6 inches and larger “have not been as popular with smartphone buyers” and growth in that segment has been “marginal,” IHS said.

InFocus released what it’s calling the most affordable HD home projector in its 30-year history, the company said in a Tuesday announcement. The 1080p ScreenPlay SP1080, $549, projects 3,500 lumens of brightness and has a 25,000:1 contrast ratio, it said. Viewers have the flexibility to “calibrate it to their unique tastes” with BrilliantColor technology, which allows the adjustment of color output for display on a neutral wall, a projector screen or another surface, it said. The ScreenPlay SP1080 is available for purchase through InFocus resellers and directly from the InFocus online store, the company said.

Corning will use CES to bring "to life" its "vision" of a "bold future for glass technologies," the company said in a Friday email blast to reporters covering the Las Vegas show. Corning's CES exhibit will be an "immersive, full-sensory experience" that will showcase the "limitless possibilities of design and functionality in a breathtaking new era that can only be called the Glass Age," the company said. There's a future for glass “even in flexible, conformable applications" that OLED advocates have targeted, Corning executive Robert O’Brien told a Display Week business conference in June. Corning also has been working with its customers “for a few years now” on devising “thinner and thinner” glass conducive for “roll-to-roll” display applications, O’Brien said there (see 1506010034).

IHS Technology sees 2016 as “a sluggish year for the display industry,” Yoonsung Chung, IHS senior manager-large display, said in a report. Though TV panel shipments and prices were “robust” in the first half of 2015, this trend “turned around” in the second half, mainly from the decline in IT product demand and the “subdued consumption” in emerging markets caused by the strong U.S. dollar, Chung said. In 2016, the display market “will suffer from external factors,” including the continued strength of the dollar, but also “economic recession in China and Brazil” as well as “internal issues,” such as excess panel inventory carryover from 2015, he said: “The forecast for 2016 is not rosy, due to both internal and external factors. There are constantly new entrants and investments, while demand growth is not optimistic. It goes for all industries to say that such [a] market environment can lead to industry-wide restructuring with only the self-sustaining resilient players in the market surviving.”

LG Display will invest 1.84 trillion Korean won ($1.59 billion) to build a new OLED panel plant in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea, with production expected to begin in the first half of 2018, it said in a Friday announcement. The new plant, called P10, will produce mainly large-size OLED TV panels and flexible OLED panels for smartwatches and automotive displays, the company said. The initial investment covers only the construction of the building and its infrastructures; LG Display anticipates eventually spending more than 10 trillion Korean won ($8.6 billion) to upscale P10's production line, “based on customer demand and market conditions,” it said. The completed plant will occupy an area equivalent to 14 football fields, it said. “TV manufacturers in Korea, China and Japan have already launched OLED TV models and more TV manufacturers in Japan and Europe are expected to adopt OLED TVs in the near future,” it said. “Demand for flexible OLED panels in the smartwatch and automotive display sectors is also rising because they offer better design flexibility than LCD panels.” LG Electronics has been OLED TV’s only prominent global advocate, though Panasonic at the last IFA show in Berlin announced plans to deliver a 65-inch 4K OLED TV in Europe (see 1509020025).

OLED remains a “costly technology” because OLED panel production generally “has yet to achieve a satisfactory yield rate,” said TrendForce, the Taiwan-based research firm, in a Wednesday report. Still, OLED “has become a much-discussed innovation that has captured consumers’ interest,” the firm said. It estimates LG Electronics, virtually OLED’s only brand proponent, will ship 450,000 to 500,000 OLED TVs this year, giving OLED a market penetration of about 0.2 percent of the global TV business, it said. It estimates LG Electronics will ship a million OLED TVs globally in 2016, for a market penetration nearing 0.5 percent, based on rapid OLED panel capacity expansion at supplier LG Display, it said. LG Electronics and LG Display representatives didn’t comment. They at every turn have defended OLED’s viability (see 1509040026).

QD Vision procured $22 million in new funding from new and existing investors and will use the money toward “further development of intellectual property inventions and to support the company’s accelerating growth,” the quantum dot technology supplier said Monday. QD Vision also announced a new joint development agreement with one of its key investors, BASF Group, for a quantum dot-enhanced backlight and a color filter for use in LCD displays, the company said. QD Vision and BASF “will target growing demand for wide color gamut technologies, particularly those focused on achieving the Rec. 2020 color standard,” it said. “Wide color gamut technology will enable displays to show millions more colors than today’s UHD or 4K displays.”

OLED technology supplier Universal Display thinks OLED is “transforming” the CE “landscape” and “in just a few years, we believe that OLED TVs will be a significant contender in the mainstream market,” CEO Steve Abramson said on an earnings call. OLED’s share of the mobile phones category “has grown by leaps and bounds,” and Universal believes OLED in the TV market “is just beginning its commercial journey,” Abramson said Thursday. “We are excited for the future,” because the company is “well-positioned to take advantage of the great opportunities of this growing industry” by driving “profitable growth” and delivering “the most energy-efficient, high-performance and cost-effective emissive layer solutions in the industry,” he said.

Chinese manufacturers are rapidly adding capacity in all flat-panel display segments, despite FPDs’ trend toward commoditization, said an IHS report Thursday. While the FPD market is seeing declining prices and shrinking margins, financial incentives from local Chinese governments are driving additional manufacturing capacity that's projected to grow by 40 percent per year between 2010, when China had 4 percent of the market, and 2018, when it's forecast to be a leading 35 percent of production, said IHS. “Despite growing concerns of oversupply for the next several years in most parts of the display industry, there is still little evidence that Chinese makers are reconsidering or scaling back their ambitious expansion plans,” said analyst Charles Annis. China currently produces only about a third of the FPD panels it consumes, but panel makers and government officials are expecting to double domestic production rates in the next few years while also looking to export markets, Annis said. BOE leads FPD producers at a 44 percent growth rate for the period and will become the main driver for Chinese share gains, he said. How excessive global supply, falling prices and lower profitability will affect these plans over time "is not yet exactly clear,” said Annis. Meanwhile, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan have restricted investments for FPD production to focus on advanced technologies, said IHS. Thin-film transistor capacity for FPD production in those countries is forecast to grow at less than 2 percent per year during the forecast period.