Market updates

Omdia says that shipments of OLED displays in tablets are set to grow in the future, rising from around 3.8 million in 2023 to 35 million in 2031. 2024 will see a 315% jump in shipments as Apple starts to adopt OLEDs in its tablets.

Interestingly, Omdia sees an increase in adoption of a 'hybrid OLED' structure (reaching a market share of 85.1% in 2031), which the company defines as a glass-based OLED with a thin-film encapsulation. This hybrid design is lower in cost compared to a flexible OLEDs, while still achieving high performance and a thin design. 

Samsung Electronics started selling OLED monitors in 2023, and one year later, according to IDC, it leads the global OLED monitor market, with a 34.7% market share by revenues. It also is the leader in shipments with a share of 28.3%.

Samsung's first monitor was the 34" OLED G8, a QD-OLED gaming monitor. Since then Samsung released several new OLED monitors, and it's likely that the OLED Monitor market is set for fast growth ahead. 

UBI Research says that it expects the total shipments of OLED emitting materials to reach 131 tons in 2024. The market will grow to 177 tons by 2028, a CAGR of 7.9%. In terms of revenues, the market will grow from $2.4 billion in 2024 to $2.7 billion in 2028.

UBI says that demand for OLED displays is on the rise, fueled by increased adoption in entry-level phones and IT products. 

Omdia says that OLED monitor shipments rose 415% in 2023, and the trend will continue in 2024, with a 123% increase over 2023. Total shipments in 2024 will reach 1.84 million units, driven mostly by Samsung Electronics and LG Display.

The main market for OLED Monitors is high-end gaming, especially esports. The entire monitor market has seen a downturn in 2023 and 2023, but Omdia says the market is expected to recover slowly in 2024. 

According to Sino Research, in the first quarter of 2024, small-to-medium AMOLED production in China surpassed the production in Korea, by shipments, for the first time. China's market share was 53.9%, an increase from 44.9% in Q4 2023.

The leading producer is still Samsung Display, with a 41% market share (down from 53.3% last year). BOE has a market share of 17%, Visionox 12%, CSoT 10%, Tianma 9% and LGD 6%. The mean reason for the rise in China production and a decline in Korea's is lower shipments to Apple and an increase in the adoption of OLEDs in Chinese smartphones. 

According to a new report in Korea, LG Display aims to increase its OLED TV panel shipments to Samsung Electronics in 2024, and to reach almost 1 million units. 

Samsung has recently signed a five-year OLED TV panel supply agreement with LG Display, as the two Korean companies are increasing their collaboration to fend off competition from China. 

DSCC says that the OLED market grew around 50% (revenues) in the second half of 2023, compared to the first half of 2023. DSCC expects the OLED market to continue growing in 2024, with revenues to increase 4% over 2023 (with a 11% growth in unit shipments).

The growth in 2024 will mainly be driven by higher demand for AMOLED smartphone panels, TVs and IT applications. In the whole of 2023, DSCC estimates that the market contracted by 4%, and it is now returning to growth. 

In 2019 Samsung Display announced its decision to invest $10.85 billion in QD-OLED TV R&D and production lines. A few years later, SDC started to produce panels in its first fab, mass producing TV and monitor QD-OLEDs. The company attracted several customers (Sony and Samsung Electronics for TV panels, and several companies for its monitors), and these displays have been very well received by the market.

Since 2022, Samsung has increased its production yields, and increased its production capacity, and today it produces around 40,000 substrates a month in its 8.5-Gen production line. Reviews of QD-OLED gaming monitors and TVs are very positive, with many analysts seeing QD-OLED as improving over LGD's WOLED panels in terms of image quality. 

But the reality at Samsung Display's QD-OLED division, is likely not so rosy. It seems that the technology is facing both market challenges and technology challenges - which may lead to a decision by Samsung to abandon it altogether. 

According to UBI Research, the OLED tablet panel market is set to grow quickly, more than doubling between 2024 (12 million units expected) to 2028 (28.4 million). That's a CAGR of 24.1%.

UBI says that the market in 2023 was only 1.8 million panels - so growth in 2024 will be dramatic (almost 7X), mostly thanks to Apple's adoption of OLEDs in some of its iPad modules (expected to be announced next month). Samsung will produce 11" panels for Apple, while LGD will produce larger 12.9" panels. 

UBI Research released its latest foldable OLED shipments forecast, saying that it expects the market to grow from 27.4 million units in 2024 to 52.7 million 2028.

The market is dominated by Samsung Display, which shipped 13.4 million foldable OLEDs in 2023, and holds a 61% market. Samsung is followed by BOE (6.2 million, growing 3X from 2022), TCL CSOT (1.1 million) and Visionox (1.1 million). UBI expects Samsung Display to remain the clear leader in this market as it is the sole supplier to Samsung Electronics - and it is also expected that Samsung will be the exclusive supplier to Apple's future foldable iPhones.