Musing From an OLED Advocate

Musing Commentary for the Week of May 29, 2023
Reactions to Display Week’s Diamond Anniversary_05/29/2023
 
In a period of display industry weakness, where shipments and revenue are down, capacity outstrips demand and utilization is 30% below profitability levels, SID claimed that attendance for Display Week would be the highest ever, reaching 6,000 during the week.  All the major panel makers participated on the exhibit floor with SDC returning after a short absence, while BOE, LGD, Tianma and TCL were front and center, as were 100s of booths of other display industry participates.
 
In terms of the key notes, 

  • Charles Peng, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Tianma Microelectronics Co., Ltd. featured their industry leading position in the growing automotive panel segment with over a 17% market share. Dr. Peng spent much of his talking justifying their Gen 8.7 LCD fab investment, which is targeted at IT and automotive and has a-Si and IGZO backplane support.  The number of new Gen 8.x fabs, mostly OLED raises the issue of whether demand in 2024/5 will be sufficient to make effective use of the capacity. Tianma also added that they are reaching commercial yields in their Gen 6 OLED fabs and expect to add share as Chine OEMs convert their mid-range smartphones from rigid LTPS LCD panels to OLEDs. However, it is unlikely to have much effect in 2023 as the smartphone market contracts.
  • Magic Leap’s Kevin Curtis, Senior VP, Head of Hardware gave the 2nd keynote and provided a roadmap of how to make AR glasses work.  Magic Leap is famous (or infamous) for convincing some of the world’s best and brightest to invest ~$2.60b, based on Rony Abovitz’s engaging video of how holographic AR glasses would “change the world.” 
    • On April 22, 2020, Magic Leap announced layoffs of somewhere between 600 to 1000 employees, which amounted to around 1/3 to 1/2 of their total staff. 
    • By December 2019, ut was reported that only 6,000 headsets were sold against their target goal of over 100,000. 
    • Portions of the $2.6 billion raised through Magic Leap were spent on salaries and helping to bootstrap an entire cohort of XR professionals who are now working at a number of Big Tech companies and a number of laid Magic Leap employees ended up at Apple (~40%), Facebook (~20%), Google (~20%), Microsoft (~15%), and Amazon (~5%). 
Curtis showed where a good portion of the funds went and provided insight into the challenges that were solved to get the Magic Leap headset functional. He discussed the transition from the ML1, MagicLeap’s introductory product to the current ML2, which is has a wider FOV is lighter and less expensive. [Read more]
Gree Dismantles Smartphone Initiative_05/29/2023

Smartphone shipments in China tanked to their lowest values in over a decade during Q1’23 and the consequences for some brands are now on full display. Gree – the Chinese home appliance giant has now dismantled its smartphone division as the company will formally exit the smartphone market for good.
 
[Read more]
Leftovers

BOE Chairman Ignores Samsung During Visit to Korea_05/22/2023
Tough Times for Sharp and its Display Business_05/22/2023

Musing on Materials

ECO2 (CF on TFE) Increases Max Luminance for OLED Displays_05/1/2023
Pentile Technology Adopted by All OLED Panel Makers Morphing into Multiple Sub-pixel Layouts._05/1/2023
Musing on Meta Verse

Meta’s Reality Labs Lost US$4.3b in Q422, Bringing Total Annual Losses To $13.7b_02/12/2023
Musing on MicroLEDs

A Red-Emitting Micrometer Scale LED With External Quantum Efficiency >8%_05/22/2023
Musing on Production

Hanwha Can’t Find Customers for its Electroformed FMMs_05/29/2023​
​Musing on Technology
China Institute Conducts First Real-Time Wireless Transmission Of Its 6G Communication Technology, _05/15/2023
Automotive

Holographic Display Demonstrated in Porsche_05/29/2023

IT
​IT Monitors _05/22/2023
Smartphones

Kenya Developing a $40 Locally Assembled Smartphone_05/29/2023
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Transportation
 
AERQ’s Lightweight, Flexible OLED Screens Extend the Use of Displays in Aircraft_11/20/2022
TVs

LG’s MLA Solves the Luminance Issue for WOLEDs_05/15/2023
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VR/AR​

Meta Seeking To License Magic Leap’s AR Technology_05/29/2023​
The Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 and RTX 4060 Ti are finally here, starting at $300._05/29/2023
Wearables

Fraunhofer Institute Demonstrated 28-Nanometer Backplane Technology On 300mm Wafers for OLEDoS Display_05/22/2023​
Will Lithographic Deposition Systems Enable OLED to Compete in High Pixel Density Applications?_05/22/2023
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Q3'2021 Updated Data 

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