Flexible OLEDs: introduction and market status - Page 33

China-based Skyworth announced that it will introduce new AI-chip powered OLED TVs in 2018. The company says that these new chips will "leverage artificial intelligence to search, identify and refactor images as a means to accurately enhance image quality and restore the immersive aspect, delivering a more lifelike viewing experience".

Skyworth has been producing OLED TVs since 2014, when it introduced its first OLED TV, the Tianchi E980. Since then it released several such TVs, the latest one being the W9 'wallpaper' OLED TV introduced in 2017.

Samsung has been developing foldable display technologies for a long time, and it seems that a foldable phone/tablet is always just around the corner. In September 2017 Samsung's Mobile Business group President says that it hopes to have a foldable phone in the market in 2018, and according to new reports from Korea Samsung is now expected to start production in November 2018. The phone will have a 7.3-inch display that folds inside.

2014 foldable phone concept

The Korea Herald reports that the foldable phone will be introduced in December 2018 or early next year. Samsung Electronics already finished the phone's design and specification, and Samsung Display is expected to complete the display development by March 2018. The actual panel production will commence in September 2018.

Today we published new versions of our market reports - that cover the flexible, VR/AR, microdisplays, automotive and graphene OLED markets. OLED-Info provides comprehensive niche OLED market reports, and our reports cover everything you need to know about the niche market, and can be useful if you want to understand how the OLED industry works and what this technology can provide for your own industry. The reports are now updated to January 2018.

The OLED for VR/AR Market Report:

• Why OLEDs are adopted in almost all VR HMDs
• What kind of displays are required for VR and AR applications
• What the future holds for the VR and AR markets
• Current and future VR and AR systems

The report package provides a great introduction to the emerging VR and AR market, and details the role that OLED displays will have. Read more here!

The Korea Herald claims that LG Display is in the final stages of its discussions with Apple, and the Korean OLED maker expects to supply 15-16 million flexible OLEDs to Apple in 2018. According to the report, LG will supply Apple with 6.5" AMOLEDs for its 2018 large iPhone OLED variant.

Samsung Display will remain Apple's main OLED supplier, and this new report says that SDC will supply apple with more than 120 million 5.8" OLEDs in 2018. An earlier report by Business Korea estimated that SDC will supply Apple with 180-200 OLEDs in 2018.

A few days ago we posted on Konica Minolta Pioneer OLED (KMPO) and its demonstration of simple flexible OLED lighting panels integrated into packaging. My friend Takatoshi Tsujimura, CTO at KMPO, sent me this nice Christmas greeting card, which arrived yesterday, with an integrated small red OLED. The OLED has a mirror finish when off.

This was exciting to get, and the whole card is very well done and feels great. It's a very nice surprise to see something light up in such a thin paper card. KMPO calls this concept "thin paper products with functionality".

In June 2017 Konica Minolta and Pioneer established a new OLED Joint Venture called Konica Minolta Pioneer OLED, which will combine the OLED business and product divisions of both companies, with a focus on automotive applications.

KMPO released a new video today showing a different possible application of its OLED lighting - integration into paper for packaging or greeting cards. KMPO calls this concept "thin paper products with functionality".

According to Business Korea, Samsung Display will ship 50 million flexible AMOLED displays to Apple in 2017. Next year that amount is set to quadruple to 180-200 million panels, as Apple aims to adopt OLED displays in more iPhone models.

Samsung will produce all of these OLEDs bound for Apple at its A3 fab. Initially SDC aimed to construct a new fab for Apple (the A5 fab) but earlier reports suggested that these plans have been delayed. Samsung managed to increase the yields at its A3 line from 60% in early 2017 to around 90% today.

Analysts from CLSA returned from a journey to Asia with some interesting notes on the OLED industry. According to CLSA, spending in the OLED industry has peaked and OLED producers are not expecting to place any new equipment orders in the near future. This coincides with IHS estimates of over supply in the flexible OLED market in 2018.

According to CLSA, Samsung has a current capacity in its A3 and A4 (which should be ready by Q2 2018) OLED fabs to produce about 330-385 million OLED displays per year (11 lines, each about 15,000 monthly substrates) which SDC expects to be enough to satisfy Apple's and Samsung Electronics' demand. SDC does not see a strong demand from China's smartphone makers, surprisingly, due to the high cost of OLED displays. Without demand for larger displays (tablets/laptops) or perhaps for foldable devices, SDC's seem to be content with its current OLED capacity.

UBI Research estimates that in 2019 Flexible OLED shipments will reach 480 million units, overtaking rigid OLED shipments (409 million in 2019) for the first time. In a somewhat confusing PR, UBI seem to suggest that flexible OLED shipments will grow at a CAGR of 41% to reach 1.285 billion units (and $59.4 billion in revenues) in 2022.

UBI also provides information on two specific market segments. Full-screen flexible OLED shipments will reach 265 million units in 2018 (a market-share of 82.1% of all flexible OLEDs). Full-screen OLED domination will continue in the future and in 2022 over a billion such displays will ship (market share of 79.5%).

DSCC estimates that 88 Million smartphone OLED displays were shipped in Q3 2017, which represents a 4% drop from Q2 2017 and a 13% drop from Q3 2016 - mostly due to delays in iPhone X shipments. Flexible OLED shipments were up 25% from Q2 2017 (30.4 million units).

Shipments are expected to grow significantly in Q4 2017, though, to reach 151 million units. Flexible OLEDs shipments (78.3 million) will grow 157% from last quarter and 544% from last year, and will surpass rigid OLED shipments (73.3 million) for the first time.