RiT Display - Page 5

Samsung SDI captured 24% of the 21-million-unit OLED market in the third quarter of 2006, shipping 5.1 million units, according to a Korean-language press release issued by market research firm OLEDNET.

Taiwan-based RiTdisplay ranked second with 3.9 million units sold, followed by LGE with 3.7 million units, Pioneer with 3.2 million and Univision Technology with three million.

Read more here (digiTimes)

DisplaySearch revealed in its latest Quarterly OLED Shipment and Forecast Report that OLED shipments grew to 16.1M and revenues hit $112.0M in Q2'06. Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLED) displays compete with LCDs in small/medium applications such as mobile phone main displays and subdisplays, MP3s and automotive consoles. OLED shipments increased 44% Q/Q due to 48% increase in subdisplays and a 36% growth in MP3 player sales. PMOLEDs continue to dominate the market with a revenue share of over 98%. There are 23 small molecule and 2 P-OLED producers with small molecule having a 97% revenue share.

LG jumped past Samsung SDI and RiTdisplay and led in units and revenue in Q2'06 with 3.6M displays and $27.5 in revenue. Samsung SDI was #2 in both shipments and revenue, and Pioneer moved up to #3. Recovering from a very poor Q1'06, Univision was #4 in revenue, up 361%, and RiTdisplay fell to #5.

Other news include:

• Ness Display (Singapore) closed its doors after producing 190K displays, as the company ran out of funds due to the combination of poor yields on color and the continuing reduction in ASPs. Varitronix (Hong Kong) was a major investor, and it is unclear whether they intend to take over the assets.


• Teco (Taiwan) is moving their Fab from Taiwan to China and has stopped production.


• Opto Tech (Taiwan) is attempting to find a buyer or an investor and has stopped production.


• After reaching volumes of over 700K panels/quarter, Lightronix (Taiwan) was down to 30-40K.


• AMOLED producers continue to struggle with LTPS yields, causing AUO and Chi Mei to reduce their staffing levels until the problems are resolved. Samsung SDI continues to forecast AMOLED production for Q4'06.

Read more here

LG Electronics shipped a total of 4.5 million OLED panels in Q2, while Samsung Electronics, which maintained the lead in shipments, posted roughly 4 million units, followed by Taiwan's RiTdisplay with 3.7 million units, Univision with 2.2 million units, and Japan's Pioneer with 1.8 million units, Display Bank noted.

The OLED panel maker is considering a transfer of the OLED business to LG.Philips LCD and LG.Philips LCD is also making preparations for mass production of AMOLED panels.

Univison said the patent technology is common among OLED makers and it demonstrated a grayscale OLED panel in a 2001 exhibition. However, RiTdisplay stated the court has ruled that the case should be investigated and Univision has not received a patent license from Kodak.

Read more here

RiTdisplay is expected to overtake Samsung Electronics to become the top OLED supplier worldwide this quarter, while another Taiwan-based company, Univision Technology, will also edge up to take the third position, according to DisplaySearch.

In January, surging demand for MP3 players helped RiTdisplay record revenues of NT$161 million, up 16% sequentially. However, despite the company seeing its revenues fall 29% to NT$114 million in February, DisplaySearch still expects RiTdisplay to top all vendors in OLED shipments this quarter.

Univision has also benefited from strong demand in the MP3 player segment. The company had record revenues of NT$74 million in January and posted even better results in February.

With the industry seeing falling shipments on increased revenues, Taiwan OLED makers are looking to work their way up to the higher end of the market by producing larger, higher-end OLED panels, such as the active-matrix OLED (AMOLED) panels produced by their Korean and Japanese rivals.

Read more here

Digitimes reports that Univision Technology, RiTdisplay and Lightronik Technology all enjoyed growth in OLED sales in January 2005 - due to high demand for MP3 players.

Univision plans to introduce 1- to 1.5-inch full-color PMOLED panels in the second or the third quarter of 2005.

There are reports that PMOLED panels used in MP3 players will account to more than 30% of RiTDisplay's shipments in 2005. MP3 players panels will amount to about 50% of Univision's sales. This is a large jump from the situation in 2004 where MP3 players panels represent only 3.8% of the market (and mobile phones accounting to 88%).

Univision also plans to start offering 65K-color PMOLED panels for mobile phone external displays later this month.

Both RiTDisplay and Univision reported their financial results for Q3 2004, and both companies report a drop in PMOLED shipments and sales.

RiTDisplay sales dropped 37% (compared to Q3 2003) to NT$379 million, due to excessive handset inventory in China. Univision's sales dropped 28% to NT$80 million, mainly due to declining shipments caused by a tight supply of OLED driver ICs.

Digitimes says that Japanese OLED makers (such as SK Displays, TM Display and Hitachi) have already begain mass production of AMOLED displays, while Taiwanese companies are postponing their schedules and will not start volume production until 2005.

There are 15 AMOLED production line planned in Taiwan, Japan and Korea for 2005 according to Digitimes. Nine of these lines belong to Japanese makers. In Taiwan, the leading player seems to be RiTDisplay. The company have been showing AMOLED samples in June 2004 but they will not start mass production in 2004 as originally planned - they postponed it to 1Q 2005 due to low yields.

According to Taiwan's Industrial Economics and Knowledge Center (IEK), PMOLED sales in 1H 2004 totalled 1,611 NT$m (a 164% increase over 1H 2003, 610 NT$m). IEK predicts that total sales in 2004 will reach 3.7 NT$m, up 110% from 2003 (1.7 NT$m). The leading Taiwanese OLED maker is RiTDisplay.