http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=m5rlTrdF5Cs

http://blogs.barrons.com/techtraderdaily/2011/11/08/panl-up-8-q3-crushes-estimates/?mod=barrons_msnhttp://online.barrons.com/article/BL-TB-34649.html?

A new OLED lamp design from company Blackbody boasts an amazing 2.8 watts of power consumption. This gives a good example of the types of efficiencies we'll be seeing with OLED white lighting, and the flexibility its form factors offer over other lighting sources like incandescent, fluorescent and LED. More info and a video review of the lamp at the link below.

http://www.oled-info.com/blackody-v-lux-oled-desk-lamp-hands-review

Nokia was showing off a prototype of a flexible tablet computer named 'Kinetic' that uses twisting movements of the device to control it. Quite nice. No confirmation that this is an OLED display but what else can do that but OLED? Nothing I know about.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/10/26/nokias-kinetic-future-flexible-screens-and-a-twisted-interface/

Sony has a new line of OLED monitors that are set to raise the bar for what video and graphics professionals expect from a display monitor. Comments in the video from various people in the industry extol the virtues which include super-deep/infinite black levels, no flare, superfast refresh rates, CRT or better general image quality, and pure colors. The video below is well-produced and is a good watch.

Sony BVM-E Series OLED Monitors video on YouTube

UPDATE: A very favorable review (titled "The CRT Replacement Is Here…Finally!") of these Sony OLED monitors done by ProVideoCoalition is now available on their site. Visit it by clicking here.

Some choice quotes from the review:

http://www.oled-info.com/displaysearch-amoled-capacity-triple-2012-double-again-2013

Samsung has released images of what may eventually be a new flexible OLED cellphone, called the Samsung Galaxy Skin. The device can be contorted into many shapes, including being wrapped around your wrist as a watch. Graphene is the screen material of choice that allows bendable displays that are super-strong and impact-resistant. This is a much-desired feature by many, I'm sure, as cellphone screen fragility is a problem for everyone. Very cool and interesting uses for OLED are coming... More can be seen on the Galaxy Skin by clicking here

Update: Rumor has it that Samsung may be launching the Samsung Skin in Q2 of 2012. Stay tuned for more concrete evidence as it surfaces.

I've been watching OLED (Organic Light-Emitting Diode) mature for the last 6 years or so (here's a debate thread I started 5 years ago where I mention OLED late in the conversation as the obvious next-generation display technology - ExtremeTech discussion). It looks like the time of OLED has finally come.

OLED is truly the "next generation" display (and lighting - see bottom of article) technology we've all been waiting for. It's flatly superior in every regard to LCD (and green both in terms of energy usage as well as the lack of dangerous substances like mercury); faster response rates (current OLED displays are 0.02 ms compared to 2 ms for the best LCDs), faster refresh rates (OLEDs have 600Hz refresh rates compared to 120Hz or 240Hz for the best LCDs), higher contrast ratios (OLEDs use no backlighting so blacks are truly black, leading to a true 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio, or higher), and they can use less power (partly due to the lack of a need for backlighting). In the end, OLED displays will actually be cheaper to produce than LCDs, too (likely around 2015-2016). On top of all of that they simply LOOK better; the colors and off-axis viewing are amazingly good (very nearly 180 degrees).

In point of fact, OLED isn't just the next-gen display of choice; it's the final destination in flat-panel displays. What do I mean by that? I mean that OLED demolishes ALL the nagging issues that other display technologies have suffered from, including ghosting, poor contrast/blacks, too slow refresh rates and pixel response, poor color reproduction, and so on. Basically, when OLED is out in force in the marketplace there will be no issues left on the video side of the equation that need addressing.

We have OLED on cellphones already, like the Samsung Galaxy S, and they look truly amazing compared to anything else on the market. But now we have some OLED TVs making their way to market. You may be wondering, "Well, I've seen LED HDTVs at the retail stores - isn't that the same thing?". But that isn't the case - first off, LEDs and OLEDs have almost nothing in common; LEDs are point-source and a single color only; OLEDs can be planar or point and can be any color which is why they're useful for displays. Secondly the LED HDTVs you see in stores aren't LED TVs at all; they're LCD displays that use LED *backlights* instead of fluorescent tubes.

Evidence of OLED Progression into the Marketplace

In recent news, we see that Apple has submitted 3 patent applications, all around using OLED displays in tablet or smartphones:

http://www.flatpanelshd.com/news.php?subaction=showfull&id=1297681474

Here's a nice listing of some of the many devices already on the market that use OLED displays that you may have seen but didn't even realize were OLED:

OLED devices in the market now

As an example of what we can expect from OLED HDTVs take a look at the video on this page, showing LG's 31-inch OLED HDTV in action - a beautiful display that's only 2.9 mm thin:

http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/03/lgs-31-inch-oled-spin-slices-its-way-into-our-cold-lcd-hearts/

Here are some stills from the video:

Samsung committed 2.1 Billion in 2010 to build a new 5.5 gen OLED plant that will bring monthly production of small OLED screens for cellphones and the like from 3 million to 30 million. And just a week before CES they announced their 2011 investment budget - a whopping 4.8 Billion more to fast-track a gen 8 OLED factory to produce OLED HDTVs in sizes up to 55 inches. In later news apparently Samsung is going to be able to produce OLED HDTVs of up to 65 inches from their gen 5.5 factory in 2012

Samsung invests US $4.8 Billion in gen 8 OLED plant in 2011

Samsung to produce 65-inch OLED HDTVs in 2012

Speaking of Samsung, this older video from them shows a good example of the types of displays we will be seeing very soon - this is a video of a flexible OLED screen playing full-motion video while the engineer bends it like a pretzel and bangs it with a hammer (the video also shows what happens to standard LCD cellphones from the same hammer)!

Video of "Unbreakable Flexible OLED (FOLED) Screen"

Samsung was also showing off some flexible OLEDs at CES this year - a few pics and a video are below.

Video of Samsung flexible OLED screens at CES

Another article on ComputerWorld goes into even more detail about the possible applications of flexible OLEDs.

Another nice video of LG and Samsung's flexible OLED displays they have been showing at recent conferences.

Samsung also has a new video, showing the differences between their new Super AMOLED Plus (SAMOLED Plus) and IPS-LCDs (like the iPhone 4 uses):

Samsung SAMOLED vs Apple iPhone 4 IPS-LCD

And, speaking of flexible displays not possible with other display technologies, Mitsubishi just revealed a new giant 360-degree advertising display using flexible OLED technology at the ISE 2011 show in Amsterdam:

Mitusbishi 360-degree advertising display

And now on to some comparison pictures, showing the differences between existing technologies and OLED...

Check out the OLED advantage in contrast ratio - blacks are actually black unlike the washed-out gray of the larger LCD screen:

LCD vs OLED

Off-axis viewing is vastly superior:

Sony has launched two new professional broadcast OLED displays, one 17-inch and the other 25-inch. Both are vastly superior to the existing LCDs they'll be replacing, and cost only 10% more.

Here's an interesting video that shows the potential of OLED technology as it may be applied in the very near future:

The Future of Screen Technology

Some stills from the video:

OLED isn't just the next-generation display technology of choice; it's also the next-generation lighting technology of choice. It isn't solely a point-source like LED, uses no dangerous substances like mercury (that compact-fluorescents use), is extremely energy-efficient, and is achieving extremely long lifetimes (50,000+ hours of operation and climbing seemingly monthly).

Here is a video from GE that is very informative on OLED lighting:

http://www.efactormedia.com/archive/ge_oled/index.html

Also on the OLED lighting front news, Universal Display at SID a few weeks ago showed their latest OLED white lighting display. This unit has 58 lumens/watt efficiency and has a lifetime (to 70% of initial brightness) of 30,000 hours. That's three times the life of their similar light just one year ago! And just to put it into perspective, 30,000 hours is over 13 years of 6-hour/day usage. And the panel is likely usable beyond that time as that lifetime is when it reaches 70% of initial brightness. How would you like to have lighting that saves energy (both in actual energy consumption generating light, but also in less heat for your A/C to deal with) for 15-20 years after install when compared to fluorescent or other lighting? As expensive as OLED lighting is now it's already cost-effective when you do the math on electricity savings. As the price drops precipitously it's only going to become a stronger proposition.

http://www.oled-display.net/udc-showcase-white-oled-lighting-panel-with-58-lumens-per-watt-and-30000-hours-lifetime

Universal Display's display that demonstrates the differences in different OLED light illumination types on a white globe.

More interesting lighting info - Universal Display shows off sampling of flexible OLED white (or colored) lighting - this serpentine design is flexible and can show in a range of colors and uses very little power. Manufacturers can sign on to use this technology to make myriad new lighting designs. Video of the device in action can be seen by following the link below.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/18/udc-shows-off-serpentine-oled-lamp-concept-at-sid-2011-video/

Update: July 12, 2011 - Konica-Minolta are advertising their 'Lumiblade' OLED white lighting panels, which are made with Universal Display's PHOLED materials (which are the phosphorescent materials that make OLED more power-efficient than fluorescent and other forms of lighting).

The full flyer including the specs for the panel are located here.

Update: July 13, 2011 - Novaled announced a new OLED white lighting panel, with a 100,000 hour lifetime!

"Novaled, a leading technology and materials provider specializing in high-efficiency, long-lifetime organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) for display and lighting applications, today announced it has developed a highly power-efficient white OLED structure achieving 60 lm/W at a brightness of 1,000 cd/m2 capable of reaching a very long lifetime of 100,000 hours at an initial brightness of 1,000 cd/m2 while using commercially available fluorescent blue emitting material."

More info can be seen here

For those who don't already know, H-1B is a program that allows a foreign worker to enter and live/work inside the United States for a 6-year period, after which they can apply for and receive a so-called "Green Card" (permanent residency). These people aren't sought after for their talents, but rather for the company sponsoring their visa to reap the double benefits of paying them low wages (along with lesser benefits, if any) and flooding the US IT job market with cheap labor, which artificially drives wages down across the board. The H-1B wording stipulates that the US company should have searched for a US candidate for the job, but most don't even put up a pretense. In fact I've personally seen positions that were simply posted to corkboards internally within the same company used to qualify. Another stipulation without effect in the H-1B rules is that the employer must pay "the prevailing wage" for the job being offered. But this again is far too nebulous (and ignored) to do any real good; there are wide disparities in pay even within a job title or classification - the companies end up paying what they want, which is invariably a lot less than a comparable American would or should receive. In addition they can lord the H-1B's immigration status over them, resulting in the visa holder being essentially an indentured servant. If the H-1B gets fed up and quits or is asked to leave by the sponsoring company they are either deported, or if they can find a new employer quickly enough, they can move to that employer, but must pay a fine and start their 6-year immigration clock all over again. The bottom line is this program only exists to serve the interests of those who seek cheap labor and want to depress the wages of US IT workers. How can I say that so definitively? Read on...

In the current recessionary economy the H-1B issue is getting more visibility than usual (most people ignore these things unless it directly affects them, unfortunately). So what's changed that is bringing this problem to light? For one, how about the fact that this is the first time in nearly two decades of importing workers with the H-1B program that the number of them living and working inside the USA (at mostly IT jobs) actually OUTNUMBERS the number of unemployed US IT workers? Add the recession's economic pressure on all US citizens, sprinkle in news of rampant abuses of the program by businesses looking to milk it for even more labor cost savings and you have a recipe for a groundswell of public opinion against the program and hopefully the will to reform or abolish it altogether.

Click for more on this issue

"However, there are those in the technology industry who take advantage of H-1B to bring in workers and pay them less than prevailing wages. Waving the flag of immigrant rights gives them cover to push down wages and keep the domestic workforce from organizing. It's dishonest, and it's unfair."

"It's not only laid-off workers who are suffering. In the last 10 years or so, the number of people forced to work as contractors has increased exponentially. Full-time jobs that might have gone to them are being filled by holders of H-1B visas. And that's a double whammy: Self-employed workers generally don't qualify for unemployment insurance, and they pay a substantial chunk of their income for benefits that companies don't offer them as contractors." Still not convinced that the H-1B program is just a sham way for companies to get cheap labor? Perhaps think that industry's claim that there is a shortage of IT labor in the US is their real reason? Well this final evidence should convince you - a videotaped seminar held for US companies. This seminar's purpose? To help teach those companies how to meet the letter of the H-1B law, where it regards seeking a qualified US applicant before seeking an H-1B, without actually finding any qualified or interested US applicants! That's right - they teach them how to place ads in places no one looks, and how to disqualify every American who somehow does find it and applies, so they can hire their cheap immigrant instead. Click here for the video.