Next year’s OLED shipments are expected to be about 38% higher than this year’s OLED shipments due to increased application of small and medium-sized OLED panels. Global smartphone manufacturers have begun to use more of OLED panels made from South Korean and Chinese display makers.
A market research company called Omdia estimated next year’s OLED shipments for smartphones to be 812 million which will be an 33.8% increase from this year’s OLED shipments (585 million).
The industry believes that such increase will be caused by Chinese display makers increasing OLED shipments in the small and medium-sized OLED market and thus lowering the overall OLED panel prices and global smartphone manufacturers beginning to use OLED panels for their low and medium-end smartphones.
It is expected that Apple will use the most OLED panels for its iPhones. According to Omdia, it is estimated that the number of OLED panels used by Apple for its iPhones will increase from 169 million this year to 190 million next year. Apple used OLED panels instead of LCD panels for the iPhone 12 series that was released last year. It is likely that the new iPhone series that will be released this second half will also use OLED panels as well. Samsung Electronics is expected to use the second most OLED panels, and the number of OLED panels used by Samsung Electronics is expected to increase from 157 million to 168 million.
It is expected that Samsung Display will maintain its status as the top company in the smartphone OLED market next year as well. However, its market share based on shipments is expected to decrease from 77% this year to 65%. Omdia predicted that LG Display’s market share will decrease slightly from 8% to 7%.
A representative from the industry said that Chinese display makers have continued to raise level of their technologies while chasing after South Korean display makers and that level of dominance held by South Korean companies in the OLED market is being threatened.
Staff Reporter Kim, Jiwoong | jw0316@etnews.com