Samsung Display - Page 66

According to a report in Korea, Samsung Electronics has decided to start adopting OLED displays in all of its tablet devices and to increasingly use OLEDs in laptops.

Samsung Display is currently producing OLEDs for tablets and laptops in a limited quantity, as most of its OLED capacity is dedicated to mobile phone displays. According to ETNews SDC will continue to gradually convert its LCD lines to OLED and the ultimate goal of SDC is to only produce OLED displays for mobile devices.

Digitimes Researcher states that currently Samsung Display and LG Display both rely on imported organic materials used in OLED production, but the two Korean makers aim to decrease this reliance. Both companies are buying stakes in companies outside of Korea (for example Samsung's Novaled acquisition and Sun Fine Chem investment) in order to obtain patents and move production in house, mostly at LG Chem and Samsung SDI.

The polyimide used as a substrate in flexible OLEDs, for example, is produced by Japanese Ube Industries - and used by both LG and samsung. Several organic materials used in the OLED stack are produced by Universal Display (PHOLED emitters), Idemitsu Kosan, Dow Chemical and Merck. Both companies use glass mostly from Corning and high-temperature thin film for the back-end processing from 3M.

Flexible displays are exciting - giving device makers the freedom of design can potentially unlock new applications and put displays where they haven't been seen before. Flexible displays, made on plastic substrates, are also thinner, lighter and more durable.

Following years of research, in 2013 both Samsung Display and LG Display finally started producing flexible OLEDs on plastic substrates. Since then Samsung has taken the clear lead, but LGD has some ambitious plans of its own. Other display makers are also aiming to start making such panels soon. This article will detail current AMOLED production capabilities, future production plans and market forecasts.

Display Supply Chain Consultants (DSCC) released some very interesting information regarding the mobile OLED market from its recent OLED market report by Yoshio Tamura and Ross Young. DSCC expects mobile AMOLED demand to grow from almost 400 million panels in 2016 to almost 1.2 billion in 2021.

Samsung Electronics, who's already using AMOLED displays in almost 80% of its smartphones will not increase its AMOLED orders by a lot, but shipments will grow dramatically to other players led by Apple, Huawei and Oppo.

UBI Research estimates that Samsung Display's AMOLED market share will be 89% in 2017. As more and more OLED producers join the market, SDC's market share will fall to 72% by 2020.

Samsung Display will still increase its production capacity substantially - but it will not be able to remain its market share. The whole market will grow to $57 billion by 2020 (up from about $12-15 billion in 2016), so this is still an excellent growth for Samsung.

Countless reports claim that the 2017 iPhone 8 (or will it be a >$1000 iPhone X?) will use AMOLED displays for at least one variant. Most of these reports suggested that Apple want to use a flexible curved AMOLED display.

TrendForce, following talks to supply chain sources, now says that Apple was not happy with the production yields and drop-test results of those flexible OLEDs, and the company decided to adopt a flat display (with rounded edges, what is called 2.5D glass). This design is similar to the one used in current iPhone models.

According to a report from Korea, Apple ordered an extra 60 million flexible OLED panels from Samsung Display for the next-generation iPhone, in a deal worth 5 trillion Korean Won, or about $4.3 billion.

The report says that this deal is an addition to Apple's original OLED order in late 2016. That 2016 deal, for 100 million OLEDs, was estimated at $4.3 billion as well, so it may be that this is actually the same display order that is just now being reported again.

Novaled has started constructing its new 20 million Euro fab and office buildings. The new facility will be located in the north of Dresden, and will comprise of a renovated old mill that will be turned into a prestigious office building and a new 110-meter long R&D plant with state-of-the-art research areas, laboratories and clean rooms.

Novaled says it is the world's only supplier of organic dopants for mass produced OLED displays - and also in OLED lighting panels. Novaled's materials are also used in OPV devices.

Despite the huge Galaxy Note 7 recall, Samsung Electronics announced an excellent quarterly report for Q4 2016. The company's operating profits were $7.9 billion - 50% higher than Q4 2015, and the company's highest profits in over three years.

The main drivers of Samsung's earnings were good chip and display sales - combined with a weak Korean Won rate. The Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge (and other mobile phones) enjoyed solid sales as well.

Last week Samsung released several videos that showcase its latest Super AMOLED displays. The videos shows what looks to be an actual upcoming phone with almost no bezels on the sides and no physical buttons on the front:

This design has been suggested (leaked?) before for Samsung's upcoming flagship, the Galaxy S8. Samsung is expected to reveal the S8 soon, at the MWC 2017 event (February 27th). Of course this could just be a concept handset created for the AMOLED video, but it could also be Samsung's actual new phone that was added to the video by mistake (or not by mistake).