I will be attending Huawei’s press conference on Monday morning in hopes of seeing this new handset, but based on limited information, the phone looks to challenge incumbents. In fact, the smartphone looks very similar in form to Samsung’s Galaxy S II line: super thin — just 6.68 millimeters — with a small bump-out on the bottom for a speaker and other internals. Given the design-related lawsuits between Apple and Samsung, it is almost ironic that Samsung has a bit of a copycat in Huawei.

Texas Instruments has confirmed via email that its OMAP4460 will power the 4.3-inch Ascend P1 S. OLED-Info reports the phone uses a 960 x 540 resolution Super AMOLED display, an 8 megapixel rear camera and 1 GB of RAM — all specifications that rival other high-end handsets.

Om and I have been watching Huawei — and ZTE, for that matter — of late, as most in the U.S. are unfamiliar with these companies. Last year I had said, however, that both will be a household name in the near future, as they are both successfully challenging handset makers on the low-to-mid-end markets. And now it sounds like at least one of them is ready to move up the food chain to sell $200–$300 handsets, an area currently dominated by Apple and Samsung.

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I just had an interesting talk with two industry insiders (one of them is a Samsung supplier) – about Samsung’s upcoming Super AMOLED HD display. It turns out that these displays are indeed real – and will be unveiled soon. We can expect 5″ to 6″ smartphones in fall 2011 (the first will probably be the GT-I9220 with a 5.3″ display) and 7″ tablets by the end of 2011.

Samsung’s Super AMOLED Plus technology is better seen than described; the display colors are extremely vivid when compared to any other screens. Here in the U.S., one of the first smartphones to use it was the Samsung Infuse 4G on AT&T’s network. I was blown away by the colors on the 4.5-inch display and attempted to share the experience near the end of this video demonstration.

It’s noteworthy that Samsung may boost the size of the displays because many consider 4-inch smartphones to be the largest acceptable size. I tend to disagree, mainly because carrying the Infuse with 4.5-inch screen wasn’t a problem for my hands or my pockets. And Samsung’s fastest selling phone, the Galaxy S II with 5 million sales in 85 days, uses a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Plus display; clearly the larger size isn’t hurting sales any. For these reasons, I’ve long suggested that Apple might want to consider bumping the display size of its iPhone.

Regardless of the size of smartphones or tablets that end up with Samsung’s screen technology, the company is also cutting production costs. Merten’s sources suggest that the Super-AMOLED price premium is now around 20 percent when compared to a Super LCD screen with the same size and resolution. That means Samsung could reap more profit per phone, even as smartphone sales are close to rivaling those of Apple.

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According to anonymous sources inside that the electronics supply chain, Apple changed the launch from March—as opposed to January—to “switch some components” and to add a model with a 9.7″ OLED screen. The OLED model will be manufactured with a display from LG Electronics, as part of a $500 million dollar contract with Apple. That model would be in addition to an LCD tablet with a 10.6″ display.

If making two tablets with different size screens seems a curious decision, the price of the OLED tablet is extreme. According to DigiTimes, a 9.7″ OLED display would cost about $500, and display price is typically a third of total cost, so $1,500 would be the price to manufacture the tablet. Even accounting for cost reductions by next year, the retail price could be as high as $2,000.

That’s probably about right (the price, not the rumor). The Sony XEL-1 TV has an 11″ OLED screen and retails for $2,500, but can be found for as “little” as $1,800. However, even with a subsidy from a wireless provider, there is no way Apple is going to recreate the Cube failure in two-dimensions by selling a tablet in the range of $2,000. Look for an LCD tablet for around $800 early next year.

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Many TV makers have opposed the rules, while the state’s utilities support it. Groups like the Consumer Electronics Association say that the efficiency standards will result in higher prices of TVs in California, closings of stores that sell TVs in California (because those customers will go online or out of state to buy TVs), and unhappy customers who won’t be able to find certain popular TV models in California because they won’t be economic to produce there. The CEA says that the industry has been getting more energy efficient on its own and doesn’t need regulation, which will lead to “decreased industry competition and less innovation.”

But as Amy Westervelt pointed out over on Solve Climate earlier this week, the ruling could lead to a boost in sales in the state for manufacturers that specialize in energy-efficient screens, using LCDs backlit with light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and next generation organic light-emitting diode (OLED). Consumer electronics giants from Sony to LG to Samsung are working on OLED TVs and the technology is supposed to be more widely deployed by 2012 — just in time to meet Cali’s new green TV rule.

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RealNetworks Laying Off 4% of Staff; roughly 70 people of its 1,700 workforce. (CNET)

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Orb Releases Mac Client; free app streams media (e.g. a live view from a webcam) to practically any device. (jkOnTheRun)

A Roadmap to OLED TVs? Reports peg LG creating 15-inch model this year, 20-inch next year and all the way to 40-inch panels in 2012. (The New York Times)

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Far from being a netbook, the rumored device will sport a 15-inch screen, and will appear within months, if the source is to be believed. A 15-inch OLED screen is an expensive piece of equipment, as you know if you’ve been following the emerging tech’s development. For reference, consider that Sony’s 11-inch XEL-1 OLED TV is a staggering $2,499, and it doesn’t have a computer built-in to it. No doubt manufacturing costs have come down since the XEL-1 was created in 2007, but prices still haven’t come down to the point where Apple would be able to offer a 15-inch OLED notebook for anything less than $2,000.

I understand not compromising your high standards of quality just because the economy’s not doing so hot, but introducing a premium notebook amid financial uncertainty? Probably not the best move, unless you’re counting on the few remaining wealthy souls wanting to show off even more now that their prosperity is so very conspicuous.

No other details about the notebook were forthcoming from the source, which actually makes sense if he’s just seen what’s being made on LG’s side of things and for who. Who knows, maybe it has the sort of specs a Macbook Air Pro would have. For now though, file this as either unlikely or a misunderstanding of the ultimate destination of LG’s screens. Considering Apple’s current lineup and cost structure, I just don’t see a device like this attracting that many additional consumers without stealing from the crowd of potential Macbook Pro or Air buyers.

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The company said today that it’s buying out a liquid crystal display venture it has with Panasonic and plans to refocus the business, called Toshiba Matsushita Display Technology, on OLEDs, which are more energy efficient and thinner than liquid crystal and regular light-emitting diode displays.

Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, but Toshiba said the transfer of Panasonic’s 40-percent stake will happen on April 28, when it will be renamed Toshiba Mobile Display. Set up in 2002, the venture already has some OLED operations, but mostly makes small- and medium-sized LCDs for cell phones, laptops, in-vehicle displays, and other products.

But the market for liquid crystal displays isn’t doing so well. Toshiba said in today’s statement that demand for the displays is down sharply from last year, and that the prices keep dropping. The venture is already restructuring its LCD business, according to Toshiba, including closing some manufacturing lines. Toshiba Mobile Display will then work to “establish OLEDs as an engine for growth and to enhance its display business in the medium- to long-term.”

Toshiba unveiled a restructuring program in January that includes changes to its LCD operations, and said today that buying Panasonic’s stake in the LCD venture allows Toshiba to speed up that restructuring process. Toshiba plans to cut ¥300 billion ($3 billion) in costs for fiscal 2009.

Image courtesy of Toshiba Matsushita Display Technology.

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Richards is now citing sources at Korean OEM components supplier LG who tell him not only will Apple soon launch new OLED notebooks and flat panel monitors but also a new iPhones and iPod touches to be released later this year with OLED screens made by LG, which last year secured a multibillion dollar deal to manufacture displays for Apple.

Another SmartHouse anonymous source claims Apple already has a working prototype of a new netbook-type laptop to be manufactured in Taiwan with an LG-supplied OLED screen.

What’s So Great About OLEDs?

So what’s the big whoop about OLEDs? Well, if you’re not familiar, the acronym stands for “organic light-emitting diode” technology, which some have been predicting for more than half a decade now will eventually displace LCD displays for computers and flat-panel televisions. The technology is also sometimes called light emitting polymer (LEP) or organic electro luminescence (OEL).

OLED technology could theoretically enable fabrication of display screens 1,000 times thinner than a human hair using organic light-emitting diodes that can be printed on a sheet of plastic and should be cheaper to manufacture — costing only an estimated 60 percent as much as LCDs to produce.

Fast and Energy-Efficient

British OLED developer Cambridge Display Technology (CDT), now a subsidiary of Sumitomo Chemical, was founded in 1992 as successor to a project started in the Cavendish Laboratory of Cambridge University in 1989, when it was discovered that ‘organic’ LEDs could be made using conjugated polymers. CDT specializes in what it calls polymer light emitting diodes (P-OLEDs), claimed to have several intrinsic advantages over liquid crystal devices.

• It is an emissive technology: it emits light as a function of its electrical operation.
• Its displays consist of polymer material manufactured on a substrate of glass or plastic, and require no additional elements such as backlights or filters.
• The technology is very energy efficient and lends itself to the creation of ultra-thin lighting displays that will operate at lower voltages.

Because LEP technology eliminates the viewing angle dependence of conventional LCDs, other benefits include:

• More addressable lines (higher level of multiplexability)
• Response time is fast (sub-microsecond), switching occurs at low voltage (5V), and the intensity of light is proportional to current.
• Higher contrast
• Less critical operating margins
• Reduced temperature sensitivity
• Larger displays possible

A more technical explanation of how P-OLEDs work can be found here.

Brighter, Clearer, Wider Viewing Angles

In summary, P-OLED benefits include brighter, clearer displays with viewing angles approaching 180 degrees, simpler manufacturing, offering the potential for cheaper, more robust display modules, and ultra-fast response times allowing full color video pictures even at low temperature.

CDT calls its screens light-emitting polymers (LEPs) — a type of plastic that can be charged to change color speck by speck. LEPs generate their own light, making them thinner and lighter in weight as well as more power-efficient than conventional LCD flat screen displays. They also have higher contrast with richer colors, offering superior quality images that can easily be viewed from wide angles. Additionally, LEP materials can be dissolved into solvents allowing deposition using ink-jet printing on glass or plastic substrates, thus providing a potential manufacturing advantage that could significantly change the way displays are produced and open new markets and opportunities for lower cost displays on flexible substrates that can conform to curved surfaces. CDT hopes LEPs can eventually be made from plastics soft enough to allow them to be rolled up.

Greater Range Of Colors and Blacker Blacks

LEP’s also eliminate the need for heavy, expensive display backlights, color filters and energy-wasting polarizers used in LCD displays, as well as complex multi-shadowing techniques for depositing small molecules, since color is generated directly on the LEP’s front focusing phosphors. OLED pixel colors have a greater range of colors, gamut, brightness, contrast (both DR and static), and appear correct and unshifted even at viewing angles approaching 90 degrees from dead-on and while LCDs can’t render true black due to their backlight dependence, an “off” OLED element produces no light and consumes no power, giving black blacks. Contrast, brightness, and color are retained at relatively wide angles of view.

The main OLED caveat has been limited lifetime of the organic materials used to make them, especially blue polymer OLEDs which have typically had a lifetime of around 14,000 hours (5 years at 8 hours of daily use) when used for flat-panel displays, which is less than one quarter as long as the projected service life of screens made with LCD, LED or PDP technologies (approximately 60,000 hours). CDT has reported more than tripling the lifetime of its blue polymers, but they still lag far behind the longevity of conventional technologies.

$500M R&D Funding From Apple

The Smarthouse report says LG intends to increase R&D investment by 25 percent and that recently Apple paid the Company over $500M up front to support new monitor and display technology, also noting that sources claim that while recent OLED screen testing on notebooks attracted “body oils and sweat” when a finger was constantly used on a screen, LG believes that by adding a layer in the manufacturing process that they can eliminate “finger marking.”

However, and OLED info site cautions that while this rumor thread is getting interesting, “It’s hard to believe that LG would actually release such information about a huge customer such as Apple, so we’ll have to wait and see…”

Apple always does its utmost to keep us guessing, but it appears that OLEDs are a technology whose time is arriving and looks like Apple may be in the vanguard of bringing another technological innovation to market.

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Richards says “insiders” have told SmartHouse that Apple is using a new version of their operating system software that incorporates a synergy of iPhone and MacBook capabilities, and that the fruit company has also recently been in discussions with Sony about licensing OLED technology into notebooks.

If this information is accurate, it puts wind under the wings of the school of thought that the new hardware from Apple, whatever it turns out to be, will be more along the lines of a laptop than an iPod touch on steroids, although not necessarily a laptop as we conventionally know them.

While Steve Jobs and Apple have been famously resistant to and haughtily dismissive of the netbook phenomenon, Richards says that sources have told SmartHouse that Apple had a change of mind after they were able to improve the capability of their touchscreen software and because they had been able to get new patents that allows them to deliver new features to a — taaa daaa! — “small notebook.”

As for OLED’s, if you’re not familiar, the technology has been touted as a coming “next big thing” in laptop computer development since at least 2000, which is when I first researched the topic and wrote about it.

Organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology screens emit light directly and, consequently, the LED or CCFL backlighting required by conventional liquid crystal displays (LCDs) can be eliminated, which reduces bulk and power consumption. Active-matrix OLED screens also offer a wider viewing angle than LCDs, so they can be seen clearly from the side, and they have a much faster response time than LCDs as well.

OLEDs use thin sheets of film coated with a highly fluorescent material that emit light when electrical current is applied. This electroluminescent film is much easier to produce than liquid-crystal screens, and illuminates the screen much more efficiently than do backlit LCDs, which use an array of polarizers and color filters.

OLED technology could theoretically enable fabrication of display screens 1,000 times thinner than a human hair (that should appeal to Apple!) using organic light-emitting diodes that can be printed on a sheet of plastic. Theoretically they should be cheaper to manufacture — costing only an estimated 60 percent as much as LCDs to produce.

Sounds exciting, if that’s what’s really in the works.

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