October 2019

China-based display maker BOE posted its financial results for Q3 2019. While BOE first hoped to ship 30-50 million OLED panels in 2019, it lowered its forecast to 30 million in August and now BOE says that it will ship around 20 million panels in 2019.

BOE is confident, though, that it will ship at least 40 million OLEDs in 2020. BOE says that next year it will start shipments to customers outside of China (earlier this month it was reported that BOE is approaching Korean phone makers as it aims to increase its OLED customer base).

Samsung Electronics reported its financial results for Q3 2019 - with sales of 62 trillion Won ($53 billion USD) and an operating profit of 7.78 trillion Won ($6.6 billion USD). Samsung reported lower memory earnings - but stronger smartphone and OLED panel sales.

Samsung Display saw increased profit from smartphone displays as demand for flexible OLED panels increased. SDC also reported improved OLED utilization rates.

Universal Display reported its Q3 2019 financial results - revenues were $97.5 million, and net income was $37 million. This was another strong quarter for the company, which increased its 2019 guidance to revenues of $400 - $410 million.

UDC believes that year-end 2019 will have an installed OLED square meter capacity that is 50% larger than year-end 2017. In 2020 the company sees continued revenue and earnings growth. By 2021, UDC sees OLED capacity to increase about 50% again over year-end 2019.

China-based Tianma has been producing AMOLED displays since 2017, and we now finally list the first such panel at the OLED Marketplace, a 6.01" 1080x2160 smartphone AMOLED with oncell touch.

This is a high-end AMOLED display that is available at an attractive price through a reliable supplier in China. Check out more information over at the OLED Marketplace, or contact us now.

In February 2019 Huawei announced its first foldable smartphone, the Mate X with a 8" 2200x2480 foldable AMOLED display that folds outwards. Huawei hoped to launch it in the summer of 2019, but it faced several delays. Yesterday Huawei finally announced that the Mate X will start shipping on November 15th.

The price of the Mate X will be 16,999 Yuan (around $2,400) - even higher than Samsung's $2,000 Galaxy Fold. Obviously this is a premium device for early adopters. The 8" foldable AMOLED display is produced by BOE.

Apple developed its LTPO backplane technology for OLED displays to enable power saving of around 5-15% compared to LTPS AMOLEDs. LTPO was adopted in Apple's Watch Series 4 and Watch Series 5 smart watches - with the panels produced by LG Display using Apple's technology and IP.

According to a new report from Korea, Samsung has recently developed its own brand of LTPO backplane technology and has started to produce such panels - which are adopted by the company's latest smart watch, the Galaxy Watch Active 2. The watch has a 1.2" 360x360 or 1.4" 360x360 round AMOLED displays.

On August 30 LG Display announced today that it started producing OLED TV panels at its 8.5-Gen OLED fab in Guangzhou, China. LGD hoped that mass production will begin shortly, but according to a new report from Korea the new fab's yields are low (50-60%) and actual mass production has not started yet.

LGD's new fab has a monthly capacity of 60,000 substrates, which will be expanded to 90,000 by 2021. The company has now lowered its OLED TV forecasts for 2019 as it did not meet its goal of starting shipping commercial panels in October.

According to a new report from Korea, Samsung Display will supply around 40-50 million flexible AMOLED displays to Apple in the second half of 2019. Apple's latest iPhone lineup was met with positive market response (this was already reported earlier this month by Bloomberg).

According to the report, Samsung supplied Apple with 3.9 million OLEDs in July, 8.4 million in August and 9.9 million in September. Apple's original plan was to order 6.9 million panels in September but demand was stronger than expected.

Tokyo Electron (TEL) announced a new OLED R&D inkjet printing system, the Elius 500 Pro that is capable of printing on 2-Gen substrates (370x470 mm).

The Elius 500 is able to accommodate 12 kinds of inks and can produce red, blue and green sub pixels at the same time. The maximum display density is 200 PPI.

In August 2019 Dell's Alienware announced a flagship 55" gaming monitor based on LG Display's 120Hz 55-inch 4K (3840x2160) WRGB AMOLED display. These high-end gaming monitors are now shipping for $3,899.

The Alienware 55 has a maximum brightness of 400 nits and a 0.5 ms gray to gray response time. The monitor support AMD FreeSync variable refresh rate and it has an anti-reflective coating with 2H hardness.