Executive Vice President Lee explained OLED technology innovation, future application fields, and market changes. He mentioned that COVID-19 has increased everyone’s time at home and changes in life display is necessary to match it.
At UBI Research’s ‘2022 OLED Korea Conference’ held on April 6th-8th, UBI Research CEO Choong-Hoon Lee gave a presentation on, ‘OLED Market Review’. CEO Lee presented the status of the entire OLED industry, market, and outlook with a focus on issues in 2022.
At UBI Research’s ‘2022 OLED Korea Conference Tutorial’ held on April 6th-8th, Dr. Jae-Jin Yoo from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Seoul National University gave a presentation on, ‘An Overview of OLED Materials and Devices’.
At UBI Research’s ‘2022 OLED Korea Conference’ held from April 6th to 8th, Yasuo Nakane, senior analyst at Mizuho Securities, presented ‘Consumer Electronics/Flat Panel Display Industry What is the Outlook for Turbulent 2022?’ .
2022 OLED KOREA CONFERENCE Presentation Materials on Sale * Inquiry: oledkorea@ubiresearch.com
2022 OLED KOREA CONFERENCE Presentation Materials on Sale * Inquiry: oledkorea@ubiresearch.com
According to the ‘China Trend Report’ published by UBI Research, TCL CSOT plans to apply the generation 8.5 inkjet printing OLED technology to the T8 line. It is expected that some layers will be formed by vapor deposition in the inkjet printing method rather than the complete inkjet printing method. The location is likely to be Guangzhou.
We analyzed the prices of 65-inch TVs of Samsung Electronics’ QLED TVs, OLED TVs from LG Electronics and Sony, and LG Electronics’ QNED TVs until March 2022.
The models we investigated at Samsung Electronics were 4K high-end model QN90A, 4K entry-level models QN85A and QN80A, and 8K models QN800A and QN900A. The models at LG Electronics were OLED TVs A1, C1, and G1 models and QNED TVs QN90UP and QN99UP. The models at Sony Electronics were OLED TV XR65A80J and XR65A90J.
According to UBI Research’s published quarterly report, “1Q22 Medium & Large OLED Display Market Track”, mid-to-large OLED sales in the fourth quarter of 2021 was up 29.1% (QoQ) from the previous quarter at $2.2 billion and up by 76.9% (YoY) from the same period of the previous year.
Although Samsung Display leads the way in the OLED market for mobile devices, LG Display overwhelming dominates the mid to large-sized OLED market.
According to the ‘China Trend Report’ published by UBI Research, Honor, a Chinese smartphone manufacturer, announced Magic4 and Magic4 Pro at MWC 2022 held on February 28th.
Eindhoven, 25 February 2022. ECFG has acquired a minority share in Simbeyond through Eindhoven Venture Capital Fund II (EVCF II). Simbeyond has developed simulation software (Bumblebee) that can very accurately measure the effects of OLED materials at the device level. This is the first financing round for Simbeyond. The financing will be used to accelerate company growth (R&D and sales organization).
According to the ‘China Trend Report’ published by UBI Research, BOE B11 (Mianyang) plant is experiencing difficulties in supplying quantities to Apple due to the supply and demand problem of Touch IC. The report analyzed that BOE’s shipments to Apple have decreased significantly due to the supply and demand problem of Touch IC. As a result, shipments are expected to fall far short of the 2022 target set by BOE.
According to UBI Research’s “1Q22 Small OLED Display Market Track” Small OLED Display (10-inches or smaller watch, smartphone, foldable phone, etc.) shipment in 2021 was 746 million, a 34.4% increase from the previous year’s 555 million.
26% Increase in Total Shipments of Chinese OLED Panels for Smartphones in the Fourth Quarter compared to the Third Quarter
Samsung Electronics widely successful release of its foldable phones, Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Flip 3 last year has risen expectations for establishing foldable phones into the mainstream. Chinese companies such as Huawei, Xiaomi, Oppo are also releasing multiple foldable phones.
According to UBI Research Weekly Report, Samsung Display’s OLED shipped 480 million units in 2021. The highest number of shipments were in the 4th quarter at 133 million units and the second highest was in the in 3rd quarter at 129 million units.
As LG Display posted the highest sales ever, at the same time it also made a sharp pivot into a profit for the first time in three years. On the 26th, LG Display announced that it had achieved annual sales of 29.878 trillion won and operating profit of 2.23 trillion won in 2021.
This is an analysis for the 65-inch TV prices for Samsung Electronics’ QNED TV, LG Electronics’ OLED TV, and Sony’s OLED TV in 2021.
Samsung Electronics started with the 4K high-end models QN90A and the 8K models QN800A and QN900A. As LG Display posted the highest sales ever, at the same time it also made a sharp pivot into a profit for the first time in three years. On the 26th, LG Display announced that it had achieved annual sales of 29.878 trillion won and operating profit of 2.23 trillion won in 2021.
QD-OLED panels, which are being mass-produced from the second half of 2021 at Samsung Display, will be applied to new products for Sony and DELL.
First, Sony announced ‘A95K’, the first TV with QD-OLED in its 2022 TV lineup. A95K is available in 55-inch and 65-inch models, featuring 4K resolution and a refresh rate of 120 Hz.
[CES2022] Samsung Press Conference
Of the total 226 OLED smartphones released in 2021, China released 175. This is an overwhelming 77.4% share in the market. Korea released 20, which is half of the 39 in 2020. The United States released 16 and other countries released 15.
[CES2022] Sony Press Conference at CES 2022
At the Visionox Technology Innovation Conference in 2021, Zhu Xiujian, Chief Executive Officer of Visionox Technology Product Engineering Center, gave a presentation on OLED industry trends and Visionox’s advanced technology exploration.
According to the ‘China Trend Report for the 1st week of December’ published by UBI Research recently, Among Chinese companies, BOE maintained the No. 1 position with an overwhelming share in OLED panel shipments for smartphones in October.
At UBI Research’s ‘OLED Settlement Seminar in the second half of 2021’ held on the 19th, Park Seon-hong, head of the Korea Automobile Research Institute, gave a presentation on ‘the status and outlook of future automotive display development’.
At UBI Research’s ‘2021 OLED settlement seminar for the second half of the year’ held on the 19th, UBI Research CEO Choong-Hoon Yi gave a presentation on the settlement of small/mid-large OLED industry and future market prospects.
SEOUL, Korea (Nov. 17, 2021) – LG Display, the world’s leading innovator of display technologies, announced today that its Automotive P-OLED display won the Presidential Award, the highest honor for the most revolutionary technology of the year, at the 2021 Korea Technology Awards in Seoul, Korea. This is LG Display’s second Presidential Award after first winning the coveted honor for its outstanding 65-inch Rollable OLED panel at the 2019 Korea Technology Awards.
At ‘Display Insight 2021’ held online on November 4th, ‘Joachim Kaiser’, global application manager of Merck, presented ‘Our OLED solutions – livilux®’. When presenting the ink portion of livilux’s OLED materials, Kaiser noted that “Inkjet printing is the only technology that combines RGB parallel pixel layout with scalability for large display sizes”.
According to the ‘China Trend Report for the 1st week of December’ published by UBI Research recently, Among Chinese companies, BOE maintained the No. 1 position with an overwhelming share in OLED panel shipments for smartphones in October.
At ‘GLOBAL TECH KOREA 2021’ held in September 2021, Changhee Lee, Head of Samsung Display’s Next Generation Research Department (Vice President) delivered a keynote speech on the topic of ‘Display Innovation: Form Factor, Energy Conservation, and Color’.
At ‘GLOBAL TECH KOREA 2021’ held in September 2021, Taehyung Kim, Head of Electronic Materials Business Division, Solus Advanced Materials made a presentation under the theme of ‘Solus’ Giant Step To Lead OLED Materials Technology’.
According to the market track on small OLED market performance of less than 10 inches published by UBI Research, Revenue and shipments in the second quarter were about $9.5 billion and 161.7 million units, respectively.
UBI Research has published a market track on the market performance of 10-inch and larger OLEDs. Applications include TVs, monitors, laptops, and tablet PCs.
Samsung Display begins mass production of QD-OLED in the fourth quarter of 2021, a new growth opportunity in the large OLED market
Samsung Display research center is accelerating the development of QNED as the next-generation display following OLED.
The reason Samsung Display is developing QNED as part of its large-size display business is that it is the only display that can produce the image quality that Samsung Display’s biggest customer, Samsung Electronics, can satisfy.
According to the ‘2021 OLED Components and Materials Report’ recently published by UBI Research, the ‘Galaxy Z Fold3’, which is expected to be released by Samsung Electronics in August, has UPC (under panel camera) and pol-less (or color filter on) encapsulation, COE) and S Pen technology are expected to be newly applied.
Of the 122 OLED smartphones released in the first half of 2021, 119 6-inch smartphones were released, occupying an overwhelming share of 97.5%.
The reality of QNED (quantum dot nano-rod LED), which Samsung Display is preparing as a next-generation display, has become clear.
As a result of analyzing 160 patents applied by Samsung Display, it was confirmed that the structure constituting the QNED has already been completed, and that the only remaining task is to keep the number of nano-rod LEDs arranged in the light-emitting pixel constant.
UBI Research (www.ubiresearch.com), a company specializing in OLED market research, cites the recently published ‘OLED emitting material market track for the second quarter of 2021’. It is predicted that the market for light emitting materials for OLED will grow at an average annual rate of 9% to reach $2.25 billion in 2025.
UBI Research has published a market track on the market performance of small OLED under 10 inches. The main application products are foldable phones, smartphones, and watches.
Despite the ongoing Corona-19 situation and the US government’s sanctions on Huawei, the adoption of OLED by Chinese smartphone makers is gradually increasing.
Citing the recently published ‘2021 OLED emitting material report’, UBI Research (www.ubiresearch.com), a company specializing in OLED market research, forecasted that the OLED emitting material market size in 2021 will be $1.52 billion, a 17% increase from $1.3 billion in 2020.
Utilizing high refresh rate and reducing power consumption by up to 20%
but, 30% more complex process
Samsung Display’s first OLED panel mounted on Hyundai’s first exclusive electric vehicle,’Ionic 5′
Optional digital side mirror to mount camera and display screen
Significantly helps to improve the mileage and fuel economy of electric vehicles
The biggest difference between flexible OLED and foldable OLED will be the cover window material. In terms of price competitiveness, various Colorless Poly Imide (CPI) are superior to suppliers, but in the end, the cover window market is expected to depend on which material Samsung Electronics and Apple choose.
Corona 19 and Huawei’s US sanctions negatively affected the OLED market for smartphones, but it was a plus with Apple’s strong sales of iphone 12.
Although Samsung Display’s rigid OLED line is expected to decrease due to a decrease in Huawei’s volume due to the US production, demand for rigid OLEDs is expected to increase as demand for laptops, monitors and tablet PCs is increasing. To respond to this, investment in rigid OLED lines in A4 is also being reviewed. This year’s notebook OLED panel is expected to come out with more than 10 different model product lines, and Apple’s OLED production for iPad is scheduled to start from 2022, so demand for middle and large-sized OLED panels is expected to increase.
Total shipments of AMOLED in 2020 were aggregated to 575.78 million units. This is an increase of 20.41 million units compared to the 557.46 million units shipped in 2019.
January 19, 2021 – Kopin Corporation announced its Lightning® 2.6K x 2.6K (2560 x 2560 resolution) OLED display on chip (DoCTM) are incorporated in Panasonic’s VR Glasses introduced at the CES 2021 this week.
Products with more advanced LCDs appear. It is an LCD that has greatly improved brightness, HDR, and color reproducibility by adding QD film and mini-LED to BLU. The existing top-level LCD used a full array local dimming (FALD) BLU with a local dimming zone of about 300 to 500.
As smartphone makers, including Samsung Electronics and Apple, increased the use of OLEDs in flagship models, the growth of the OLED market, which had been rapidly growing, has been braked.
According to the ‘2020 OLED Components and Materials Report’ recently published by UBI Research, Samsung Electronics’ next-generation foldable smartphones to be released in 2021 are expected to be equipped with a pen function.
It was found that COVID-19, which has spread around the world since January this year, has adversely affected the OLED industry as well. According to UBI Research (CEO Choong Hoon Yi)’s [2020 OLED Display Semi-Annual Report], OLED total shipments and sales in the first half of 2020 were 231 million units and 13.2 billion dollars, respectively. Compared to shipments of 230 million units and sales of 13.8 billion dollars in the first half of last year, shipments increased by 1 million units but sales decreased by 600 million dollars.
According to the market track for the second quarter of 2020 published by UBI Research, the total OLED shipments in the second quarter were 107 million units, down 13.4% (QoQ) from 124 million units in the last quarter. In addition, it decreased by 16.6% (YoY) compared to the 122 million units in the second quarter of 2019. This is because sales of OLED set devices decreased due to the aftermath of COVID-19.
Recently, the panel maker COST T4 plant, a subsidiary of TCL Group, mainly produces premium flexible AMOLED displays, and already supplies them to Motorola foldable OLED phones and Xiaomi 10/10 Pro premium OLED phones.
The cover window material of Samsung Electronics ‘Galaxy Z Fold 2’ which will be released in the second half of this year, is UTG like ‘Galaxy Z Filp’. The reason why Samsung Electronics prefers UTG is analyzed for its sense of luxury, differentiation, and sensitivity for the touch pen expected to be applied in the future.
It was expected that the S Pen would be applied to Samsung’s ‘Galaxy Z Fold2’, which will be released in the second half of this year, but it has passed the year.
On 21 July, information leaker for IT new product, Ishan Agarwal, released an image presumed to be a rendered photo of ‘Galaxy Z Fold2’ on his Twitter.
UBI Research published a report on trends in China related to the OLED industry at the end of the first half of 2020.
In 2020, 1Q China’s OLED sales were $842 million, despite a Corona 19 crisis, up 1.7% QoQ and 59.4% YoY. China’s OLED shipments are 23% of the total market as of 2020, and it is expected to expand to 45% in 2025.
In OLEDs which are currently leading the display industry for mobile devices and TVs, blue material is still using fluorescent material unlike red and green.
Currently, a lot of light emitting material companies are trying to improve the efficiency, lifespan, and color purity of blue light emitting materials, also next-generation materials such as phosphorescence, TADF, and hyper-fluorescence as well as actively developing luminous efficiency by controlling emission wavelengths.
Recently, Samsung’s announcement of the sale of the P8-2 LCD line in Tangjeong was posted (announced on June 29).
Samsung has been steadily selling the old LCD line until recently, but since it has never posted a sale announcement, it is unusual to post a notice on the sale of this P8-2 line.
On June 18, 2020, Jiangsu Lemeng Precision Science and Technology Co., Ltd. (江苏乐萌精密科技有限公司, hereinafter Jiangsu Lemeng) invested 200 million yuan to sign a project contract to confirm the OLED metal mask. It was held in the state-of-the-art new district of Changzhou, Changzhou, Jiangsu Province.
According to China’s Fujian Daily, a large-scale investment agreement has been recently signed in Quanzhou, China. According to the contents of the agreement, the contents of various agreements including the Micro OLED project, high-purity electronic materials, lithium hexafluorophosphate project, China Datang 5G Southeast Industrial Base project, and integrated circuit start-up investment fund business are included. It consists of high-tech IT industries such as manufacturing, digital economy, and financial services.
The touch panel technology installed on a mobile phone is an important element technology that performs a user interface function. Touch technology is changed from an add-on type to an on-cell type in flexible OLED displays.
Fluorescent blue emitting material is the only fluorescent material used in small and medium-sized OLEDs and large-area OLEDs.
Development of next generation emitting materials such as TADF and hyper-fluorescence is also in progress, but deuterium substitution technology has got attention since it is adopted to Samsung Galaxy S20.
QNED (Quantum dot nanorod LED), which is known to be under development by Samsung, is becoming a hot issue in the display industry in 2020.
With the emergence of micro LEDs, followed by CRTs, PDPs, LCDs, and OLEDs as TV displays, the industry is interested in whether QNED could be another new technology.
UBI Research (www.ubiresearch.com) published “QNED Structure and Manufacturing Technology Analysis Report”, which analyzed 41 cases of Samsung Display’s QNED (quantum dot nanorod LED) published patents.
All of Apple’s iPhone 12 models, OLED panels will be used and consisted of four models. There are three sizes, 5.4 inches, 6.1 inches, and 6.7 inches, respectively, and 6.1 inches are divided into two models.
Apple’s new iPhone 12 will be consisted of 4 models, and all 4 models are expected to adopt OLED. The general lineup of the iPhone 12 is the 5.4 inch iPhone 12 and the 6.1 inch iPhone 12 Max, and the pro lineup is the 6.1 inch iPhone Pro and the 6.7 inch iPhone Pro Max.
According to the 2020 OLED emitting material report published by UBI Research, the demand for emitting materials in 2020 is 78.6 tons, which is 4.2 tons higher than last year’s 74.4 tons. The material used for OLEDs for smartphones and mobile devices is 62.9 tons, and the OLED emitting material for TVs is expected to be 15.7 tons.
According to UBI Research’s report on changes in the OLED market caused by coronavirus, the forecast for the 2020 OLED modification market is $ 36.7 billion in sales and 612 million units. This is a decrease of 4.8% and 7.6%, respectively, from the expected sales of $ 38.5 billion and shipments of 6.6 million units at the beginning of the year.
Merck announced that it acquired the OLED patent portfolio for display applications from Konica Minolta Inc., a global technology company that provides innovative solutions to businesses and society on 24th April. The acquired portfolio comprises over 700 patent families.
The iPhone SE, the last product of the LCD smartphone that Apple has opened to the smartphone market, has been released.
Apple’s 2019 model iPhone 11 had three models, the base model iPhone 11 used a 6.06inch LCD, and the advanced specifications iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Max used 5.85 inch and 6.46inch flexible OLED, respectively.
Huawei launch its first OLED TV and LG Electronics and Sony will launch a new lineup, a 48-inch OLED TV. As a result, the OLED TV camp and lineup are expected to become more diverse.
Samsung’s LCD business, which began in 1991, will be suspended in 2021. Samsung’s LCD business is completely closed after a 30-year lifespan. Samsung foresaw the limitations of the LCD business 10 years ago and stopped investing in the 10G. Instead, Samsung Electronics has separated the LCD business to create a Samsung Display combined with Samsung SDI’s OLED and has been preparing for a new display era.
JDI announced that it has agreed to sell production equipment at its plant in Hakusan, Ishikawa Prefecture, to a foreign client for 200 million dollars.
The Hakusan plant was JDI’s mainstay factory, producing LCD panels for Apple. The plant was halted in July last year due to sluggish demand. JDI plans to clean up excess facilities that have caused poor performance.
As Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy Z Flip continues to be sold out in the market, Samsung Display’s foldable OLED cover window UTG (ultra thin glass) market is expected to grow rapidly.
China has entered the localization of PI. Although it has grown to the world’s highest level of LCD production, it is still only a few percent in the OLED panel market. In the OLED field, the Chinese government continues to invest heavily in panel makers, mainly BOE, to help China become the best production base. However, the supply chain of parts and materials that are essential for producing OLED is very poor.
Samsung Display and LG Display, whose business trip to Vietnam was blocked by the Corona virus, are trying to prevent delays in OLED production by launching charter.
The U.S. Patent Office has awarded patent number U.S. 10,593,886 to Molecular Glasses, Inc. for “OLED Devices with Improved Lifetime Using Non-Crystallizable Molecular Glass Mixture Hosts”
UBI Research(www.ubiresearch.com), a company specializing in OLED market research, predicted that the market for OLED emitting materials for 2020 will rapidly grow to $ 1.9 billion.
According to the OLED emitting material market track published by UBI Research every quarter, the emitting material market in 2019 was $ 1.304 billion, up 39.2% from 2018’s $ 0.937 billion market.
The Tianma T4 plant in Wuhan has continued to produce even during the corona period, and the core equipment of the ph2 6G OLED line has already been brought in, but the equipment set-up is delayed due to the inability of overseas equipment companies to enter Wuhan.
According to UBI Research’s annual equipment market track for 2020, the OLED manufacturing equipment market is expected to reach $ 9.51 billion in 2020. This is an increase of $ 1.2 billion compared to $ 8.31 billion in 2019.
Canon is considering the OLED materials business as the adoption of OLED panels such as smartphones and TVs is spreading. OLED panels are used in electronic finders in Canon’s mirrorless cameras.
OPPO unveiled its Find X2 series March 6, 2020 – a flagship lineup of 5G devices that delivers a powerful camera experience and battery life, with one of the most advanced screens in the industry.
AP System was selected as the final bidder for BOE’s B12 line ELA (eximer laser annealing) equipment.
ELA is an essential equipment to make low temperature polysilicon (LTPS) TFT for OLED. Eximer laser crystallizes a-Si into polysilicon. It is called LTPS because it makes polysilicon without applying high heat.
Dark clouds are approaching Korean industry by the corona virus that has been blown since the beginning of the year. Wuhan, the birthplace of the corona virus, is badly affecting the Chinese display industry because it is a key place where Chinese display makers are building large production bases.
The opening volume of Samsung’s new smartphone Galaxy S20 series on the first day in Korea is half that of last year’s Galaxy S10.
LG Display is the top OLED company with a monopoly market in the production of OLED panels for TVs, but the performance was low in the flexible OLED market for smartphones until the first half of 2019.
Compal, an ODM for notebook and mobile devices, has developed a prototype foldable hybrid tablet that can be equipped with a keyboard. Similar to Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 Fold, Compal’s FlexBook is a 13.1 tablet with two speakers at the bottom, two USB-C ports, and a volume button on the side.
The impact of China’s corona virus is expected to reduce iPhone production by 50% year-on-year.
Foxconn’s iPhone plants are located in Zhangzhou and Shenzhen, China, where 90% of the iPhone is manufactured.
According to UBI Research’s “2020 OLED Annual Report”, OLED sales in 2020 are expected to be $ 38.5 billion, an increase of 17.5% from the sales of $ 32.8 billion in 2019.
Ahead of Samsung Electronics’ unpacking event, interest in the foldable phone cover window material is hot. There was a concerned surprise that the Galaxy Fold, which was scheduled to be released in the first half of last year, was delayed for several months due to the tearing issue of the protective film. This year’s concern is whether Ultrathin Glass (UTG), which has emerged as a substitute for Colorless Polyimide (CPI), can be mass-produced without major issues.
Japan Display (JDI) announced on the Jan. 31st that they have signed a final contract to receive investment of up to 108 billion yen (980 million dollar) from Ichigo Asset Management. Therefore, the company is expected to release its debts and invest in new fields such as fingerprint sensors. However, it has yet to be determined whether JDI will invest in OLED for Smartphones.
Motorola unveiled “ Moto RAZR 2019 ”, a clamshell type foldable OLED smartphone at a presentation to be held in Los Angeles, USA on November 13th. The Motorola RAZR is characterized by the folding in the horizontal direction rather than the vertical folding like a book, and is like the new foldable phone type that Samsung Electronics unveiled at SDC 2019 last October.
According to UBI Research’s 4th quarter OLED display market track, rigid OLED is still the main product in the OLED market for smartphones, with 79.2% of the total OLED market in 2019. As a result of counting and analyzing shipments up to the third quarter of 2019, rigid OLED accounted for 237 million units of the total shipment of 338 million units.
Since Samsung’s Galaxy S8 and Apple’s iPhone X launch, smartphones with the Home button removed have become a trend in the smartphone market.
Due to the nature of smartphones that cannot grow indefinitely, display sizes with a large proportion within limited smartphone sizes are directly related to the competitiveness of smartphone set makers.
According to UBI Research’s 3rd quarter OLED display market track, the size of OLED for smartphones is gradually shifting from 5.5~5.99 inches to 6~6.49 inches.
Among the OLED shipments for smartphones of 430 million units in 2017, 5.5-5.99 inches accounted for 52.5%, but in the shipment performance until the third quarter of 2019, 5.5-5.99 inches decreased to 49.6% and 6-6.49 inches increased to 42.3%.
As foldable smartphones begin to be sold by Samsung Electronics, the flexible OLED industry (including foldable OLED) is expected to continue to grow.
Yi Choonghoon, CEO of UBI Research, predicts that the flexible OLED panel market will grow to $ 18.92 billion this year and expand to $ 32.65 billion by 2023.
On Black Friday, the day of the biggest sale season in the US, LG Electronics and Sony have lowered the price of 65-inch OLED TVs from the previous month, further increasing price competition in the premium TV market. On the other hand, 55-inch and 77-inch OLED TV prices are the same except for Sony’s XBR77A9G.