DSCC says that the AR and VR markets are set for quick growth, and display sales for AR and VR devices will grow at a CAGR of 52% between 2020 and 2026, to reach $4.2 billion in sales (up from $347 million in 2020). This forecast does not include military applications.

DSCC says that new technologies, specifically designed components and strong push by consumer electronic giants like Sony and Apple will drive this fast growth in VR and AR adoption. As you can see in the chart above actual see-through AR will remain a relatively small market even in 2026. The main problem with AR will remain display brightness, and DSCC see microLED technologies providing a breakthrough in this market.

At the end of last month, Xiaomi introduced its first foldable OLED device, the Mi Mix Fold smartphone, with a main 8.01-inch HDR10+ 1860x2480 AMOLED display that folds inwardly, and an external 6.52-inch 90Hz HDR10+ 840x2520 AMOLED display.

The Mi Mix Fold is now shipping in China, starting at around $1,500. According to Xiaomi, it has sold around 40,000 units in the first minute - generating over $61 million in revenue for the smartphone maker.

Audi unveiled a new concept electric car, the A6 E-tron. This is a preview of Audi's EVs based on the Premium Platform Electric (PPE) architecture that Audi is co-developing with Porsche. These cars will start production in 2023.

The new A6 E-tron has many interesting new technologies - and it also features OLED lighting panels in the tail lights. These lighting modules use 3D OLED clusters that can create "almost unlimited customisable variations of digital light signatures and dynamic lighting displays".

US-based aircraft cabin technology developers DPI Labs announced that its 4K OLED displays for business and VVIP aircraft cabins are now available. In fact the company completed the first installation of its OLED displays (55-inch and 65-inch) on a VVIP Boeing 767 in January 2021.

This first OLED installation included a complete DPI cabin management system consisting of passenger and cabin crew control panels, audio/video distribution, cabin control modules and DPI’s multi-colored LED cabin lighting.

DSCC says that OLED production will grow 94% in the Q2 2021, fueled by strong demand for OLED in smartphones, TVs and other devices - coupled with a recovery from the pandemic. Growth in OLED input area for small & medium displays is expected to grow 68%, while grow in OLED TV input area will grow by 134% over last year.

The chart above shows the total OLED (and mobile LCD) industry capacity. As you can see, flexible OLED capacity is growing - mainly from expansions by CSoT, Tianma and Visionox. There's also growth in rigid OLED capacity - from Everdisplay and JOLED.

Chinese smartphone producer TCL unveiled an interesting new smartphone prototype (concept?) called the Fold ‘n’ Roll.

As you can see in the video, the device has a 6.87-inch OLED display when fully folded. It can open up (out-folding) into a 8.85-inch display, and then it can open even further to a 10-inch tablet-like device using a rolling mechanism. The display itself is produced by TCL's CSoT subsidiary.

TCL said in a recent press conference that the company plans to start producing OLED TV panels in 2023. These OLED panels will be printed using an inkjet printing process.

TCL has been a long time believer in inkjet printing for OLED displays, and the company has established Juhua Printing in 2016 (together with Tianma and other collaborators) as an "open-innovation platform" to develop ink-jet printing of OLED panels. In 2020 TCL invested $187 million USD in Japan's inkjet printing developer and producer JOLED, and has also signed an agreement to jointly develop OLED TV printing technologies.

Korea-based OLUM Material announced a new FMM technology for OLED production, which the company refers to as Unit-Cell FMM, which enables high-efficiency deposition (and patterning) of evaporated OLED materials.

The basic idea is to use a small FMM unit in front of every display panel, rather than a large FMM in front of the entire substrate. A large mask is useful for very fast production, but the large masks tend to sag and deform and so FMM production is limited in size.

According to an interesting report from Korea, Samsung Electronics is discussing a potential supply agreement with LG Display for WOLED TV panels. Samsung is aiming, according to the report, to buy 1 million OLED TV panels in 2021, and 4 million (around 50% of LGD's capacity!) in 2022.

This development, if true, may have a major impact on the industry, and may spur LGD (and other OLED makers) to accelerate OLED TV production and capacity expansion plans.

As LG Electronics is launching its 65" rollable TV (65RX OLED) globally, market researchers from Omdia estimate that shipments of rollable TVs will be around 3,000 next year. The market will grow to 74,000 units in 2024 and 672,000 units in 2027.

This is fast growth, but numbers will still be very limited, it seems as Omdia does not expect mass market adoption for rollable TVs.