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.
Samsung Display attended the Taipei Grand Maple Hotel on November 7, attended by 350 global customers including HP, Dell, Lenovo, Asus and other major ODMs such as Compal, Quanta and Wistron. ‘Samsung OLED Forum 2019 Taipei’ was held.
Samsung Display chose QD-OLED as the next generation premium TV. It will also have a big impact on the premium TV market, which is divided between white OLED technology and QLED technology.
LG Display announced on the 23rd that it recorded sales of 5,827.1 billion won and operating loss of 436.7 billion won in the third quarter of 2019 according to K-IFRS.
In October 2018, Samsung Display received a lot of attention by supplying OLED for side mirror replacement to e-Tron of Audi, a global automaker. e-Tron has a camera installed in the side of the existing side mirror, and the driver can check the surroundings through the OLED installed in the vehicle.
According to the OLED emitting material market track published by UBI Research (www.ubiresearch.com), the second quarter earnings was $ 329 million, an increase of 16.6% compared with the previous quarter’s $ 228 million, and 41.1% higher than the second quarter’s $ 233 million.
According to the OLED market track published by UBI Research in the third quarter, OLED sales increased to $ 6.9 billion in the second quarter. This is an increase of 9.5% compared to last quarter, an increase of 18.5% from the same quarter last year.
In response to 8K LCD TV quality disputes that LG Electronics compared and exhibited at IFA2019, Samsung Electronics raised the problem of burning of OLED TVs.
Almost everyone is familiar with light strips for interior design. LED strips are available by the metre in DIY stores around the corner and are just as often found as under-cabinet luminaires or in decorative articles. But also in the automotive industry the demand for light strips is enormous. Customized strips with additional functionalities play an increasingly important role, especially in the area of innovative car designs.
Recently, due to the trade dispute between the US and China, a large portion of the budget planned by the Chinese government is flowing into the display industry while the semiconductor industry, which is one of intensive investment promotion industries, foreshadows difficulties. In the display industry, the focus is on OLED, which is a cutting-edge technology, and most of the investment is in the 6G line, a mobile product production line. This year has already been made at Visionox and Tianma on the 6G line, and BOE and CSOT will be invested further this year.
Sony, which is driving the OLED TV market with LG Electronics, is exhibiting OLED TVs with new features at CES and IFA after the first display of OLED TVs.
Solution process using inkjet OLED (sol OLED) has been developed mainly as a large OLED panel for TV, but recently began to attract attention in the monitor display market.
Investment of 30 million Euros in Novaled Headquarters with state-of-the-art R & D center for OLED cutting-edge technology in Dresden, Germany
UBI Research has published [2019 OLED Equipment Report] that forecasts the OLED equipment market. According to the report, the total substrate area of display companies in 2019 will be 34.9 million square meters, which will be 68.5 million square meters in 2023 and double after four years.
Since Royole introduced ‘FlexPai’, a foldable OLED phone, Samsung Electronics and Huawei have also launched Foldable OLED phones, attracting great interest from the industry and the public.
The biggest change of the foldable OLED phone currently being commercialized or under preparation is that the cover window of the glass material used in the existing flexible OLED has been changed to colorless PI material.
As Korean OLED panel makers do not have a lot of investment, the OLED equipment industry is in a low-demand season. When Chinese OLED panel makers confirm the order status of equipment orders in 2019, orders are being made centering on equipment and module line equipment required for new technologies rather than new lines.
Although Samsung Electronics and Apple’s OLED smartphone market are stalled, Chinese smartphone makers are gradually increasing their use of OLEDs based on the huge smartphone market in China. As a result, BOE and Chinese panel makers have aggressively established a Gen6n flexible OLED plant, which is driving the OLED industry.
While LG Display is recording poor performance in first quarter of this year, it is going to strengthen its competitive edge in OLED display, which is its main business. Because it is expected that Chinese LCD will continue to make inroads into supplies this year, Samsung Display is planning to bring about results through high-value OLEDs that are highly profitable.
BOE is going to start construction of its fourth 6th generation flexible OLED plant soon. It is planning to invest a total of 46.5 billion yuan (approximately 7.9 trillion won) to have a monthly production capacity of 48,000 sheets. Although the display market is slumping and demand for flexible OLEDs for smartphones is falling short of expectations, it is speeding up aggressive investments and expanding production capacity.
The Chinese companies’ volume offensive raised concerns that the OLED industry, following liquid crystal displays, could face oversupply problems. Analysts say that while South Korean display manufacturers’ performance in the first quarter has deteriorated due to a sharp drop in prices of LCD panels, even OLEDs, which are seen as new growth engines, could be on the verge of oversupply in the near future.
Following LCD panels, there are predictions that oversupply can become a reality for OLED panels.
Concerns are growing as South Korean companies plan to grow OLEDs into new “cash cow” instead of LCDs that China has taken the lead.
OLED light emitting materials market is gradually increasing as Chinese companies enter OLED panel market led by Samsung Display and LG Display.
The 2019 OLED emitting material report, published by UBI Research, predicts that the emitting material market in 2019 will reach $ 1.17 billion. 2021 and 2023 are expected to grow to $ 1.87 billion and $ 2.0 billion, respectively.
At the Lighting Fair 2019 held in Tokyo Big Sight from March 5 to 8, 2019, Nippon Electric Glass (NEG) attracted the attention of the audience by exhibiting a large number of OLED lighting produced in collaboration with Kaneka, OLEDWorks and Lumlight. NEG, which produces ultra-thin glass for OLED lighting, introduced ‘Internal Extraction Layer (IEL)’ and ‘HX-1’, which improve external luminous efficiency, and high refractive index glass.
CYNORA and Kyulux have unveiled the latest blue TADF performance and blue hyperfluorescence performance at the 2019 OLED KOREA, which is being held at Novotel Hotel in Gangnam from March 6 to 7, 2019.
“8K is not everything. OLEDs will provide new value not only in high resolution, but also in rollable typed and transparent displays ”
said Ko Kyoung Young, senior director of global promotion for LG Display’s TV division.
He emphasized this at the 2019 OLED KOREA held, the Novotel Hotel in Gangnam from March 6 to 7, 2019.
Smartphone makers are promoting the new form factor, foldable phones at MWC 2019 started on February 27 and it runs until 29 in Barcelona Spain.
The show is buzzing with products from big-name tech companies, including Samsung Electronics and Huawei,TCL, LG Electronics being unveiled. That includes a variety of phones with foldable screens.
What will be the price of foldable phone Galaxy F, which is expected to be on the market this year, is a concern for people around the world. Samsung Display is the only company that can mass-produce Foldable OLEDs with in-folding type used by Galaxy F.
The Chinese companies’ volume offensive raised concerns that the OLED industry, following liquid crystal displays, could face oversupply problems. Analysts say that while South Korean display manufacturers’ performance in the first quarter has deteriorated due to a sharp drop in prices of LCD panels, even OLEDs, which are seen as new growth engines, could be on the verge of oversupply in the near future.
According to the report, the OLED market is expected to reach $ 32.2 billion in 2019 and 13.8% market growth. The market growth is due to the launch of a variety of applications in 2019. Foldable OLED will accelerate the growth of the flexible OLED market as a convergence product that fuses smartphones and tablet PCs, and 8K OLEDs and rollable OLEDs to be launched from 2H 2019 will further solidly support the premium OLED TV market. In addition, an increase in flexible OLED shipments due to improved yields by Chinese panel makers will support growth in the Chinese OLED market.
LG Display OLED TV maintained sales revenue, it through conference call, stated it recorded annual sales revenue of 24.3 trillion won and 92.9 billion won operating profit in year of 2018.
The year 2018 was the inflection point for new application that had never existed in the OLED industry. Newly introduced OLED applications in 2019 include foldable phone, 8K OLED TV, rollable OLED TV, monitors made of inkjet technology, and automotive side view display.
Recently, Sony’s 65 inch OLED TV, XBR65A1E, is price at US$ 300 more than Samsung’s QN65Q7 on the Best Buy basis. Prices of LED TV and LCD TV are becoming increasingly competitiveness in the premium TV market.
As of January 16, Best Buy compares the price of OLED TVs between LG’s C8 series, Sony’s A1E series and Samsung’s Q7F series.
The CES, held in early January of each year, is the most important event to understand all of the consumer electronics trends of the year. This year, TV makers from all over the world exhibited a variety of products to attract spectators to the event.
Growing into the mainstream of OLED growth by expanding large OLED, differentiated products and supply
■ Small and Medium-sized POLED, strengthening fundamental business capacity and preparing future products such as Foldable
■ Develop commercial and automotive products, new technologies / new markets and develop into first-class business
In 2019, 8K OLED TVs and foldable smartphone will be on sale, bring new vitality to the OLED industry. OLED makers are leading the market with high-value-added products in order to maintain the display industry, which is collapsing due to low-cost LCDs pouring from the Gen10.5 line of Chinese panel makers.
At the 28th FINETECH JAPAN held in Makuhari Messe, Japan during December 5-7, 2018, Hiroyuki Hara, manager of Denso said that OLED will be used as future automotive displays due to their various advantages.
At the 28th FINETECH JAPAN held in Tokyo, Japan from December 5 to 7, 2018, JDI and JOLED announced that they would intensify their cooperation in order to target the middle-sized OLED market.
5G communication technology introduced from next year can process higher image quality and large-capacity contents such as VR more rapidly, besides real-time streaming service. As the communication speed increases, the relevant contents, are expected to be released, which require high resolution and large screen with graphics detailed.
This was the first time for JOLED to demonstrate its products and technologies at FINETECH Japan 2018.
JOLED, which received the inkjet OLED technology from Panasonic and is doing OLED panel business, has been selling medical monitors since early this year. Next year, Asus is also scheduled to sell inkjet OLED TVs made by JOLED.
Mr. Atsushi Ban, Vice President of Sharp presented a future strategy that combines IGZO and OLED through a keynote session at the 28th FINETECH JAPAN, held in Makuhari Messe, Japan from December 5, 2018.
The competition for front fingerprint recognition of smart phones is expected to become hot.
In the smart phone with the existing home button, the front fingerprint sensor was installed on the home button. Fingerprint security enhances security, but recently, full screen Smartphone without home button has been released and fingerprint sensor has been moved to the back of Smartphone. This has caused disadvantages such as an uncomfortable hand shape when touching a finger to the fingerprint sensor and fingerprints on the camera lens.
OLEDWorks recently announced the release of ‘Wave’, the first commercially available OLED (organic light-emitting diode) lighting platform on flexible glass.
Having a Gen5.5 7.5K line in Shenzhen, Royole is known as a head mount display (HMD) company rather than a display company. After completing installation of equipment in the second quarter of this year, Royole has been developing panels for the target of 7.8-inch tablet PC.
Apple released its Apple Watch Series 4 with enhanced healthcare features on a larger screen than before, in the Steve Jobs Theater at Apple Park in California, USA on September 12.
Japan, which used to be the strongest country in display industry in the past, gradually declined through the era of CRT, PDP and LCD, and has fallen to the third-largest producer in OLED industry after China.
Plane source technology, which was first developed by OLEDON in the world, has the principle of depositing the first organic material on the metal surface and evaporating it upwards to produce fine pattern of 2250 ppi, which is ultrahigh resolution.
According to the 3Q AMOLED Market Track issued by UBI Research, the second quarter OLED market was sluggish, affected by the lower utilization rate of Samsung Display. However, in the third quarter, the market rebounded rapidly, forming a market of US$ 8.3 billion.
At the IMID 2018 exhibition held in COEX, Seoul from Oct. 24 to 26, Samsung Display presented various OLED products under the theme of ‘optimized OLED for 5G era’.
Attention is growing since OLEDON, a venture company developing OLED deposition equipment, unveiled plane source deposition technology for OLED manufacturing to maintain ‘a superb gap with the competing countries’, at IMID2018, held in COEX, Seoul, Oct. 24, 2018.
Japan Electronics Show, CEATEC2018, was held at Makuhari Messe last week. CEATEC JAPAN 2018 is a global showcase for Japan’s growth strategies and vision of the future. Various Japanese companies exhibited products centered on IoT robots and AI. It is recognized that the electronics industry in Japan is gradually shifting from large hardware to small advanced parts and software industries.
In addition to monitors and virtual reality devices, OLED is gradually expanding its domain beyond smartphones and TVs, inclusive of the application of side-mirror OLED in automobiles. As new OLED applications are increased in various environments, it is essential to develop technologies to satisfy users.
At ICEL 2018, held at Jeju International Convention Center from Oct. 15, Soo-Young Yoon, Vice President and Head of LG Display Laboratory, presented the challenges for the OLED TV performance improvement and price reduction
TADF developer CYNORA has announced that it has extended its joint-development agreement with LG Display. The two companies have been co-developing deep-blue TADF OLED emitters for two years, and have now decided to continue the cooperation towards the commercialization of TADF emitters in OLED displays.
The display of connected cars is getting bigger and bigger to for the convenience of providing various information. The displays used in general vehicles include the cluster, CID (center information display), RSE (rear seat entertainment), and RMD (room mirror display).
Samsung Display announced on October 3 that the company will be supplying a 7-inch OLED display for Audi’s all-new electric Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV), the Audi e-tron®. The Audi e-tron has attracted attention throughout the automotive industry. One of its highlights are optional* ‘virtual exterior mirrors’ – a ‘first’ for a volume-production car.
Hwang Chang-Hoon, CEO of OLEDON, which has developed plane-source deposition technology for small & medium-sized OLED and large area OLED, said that it is under development of vertical plane source deposition technology capable of manufacturing ultra-large OLED TVs of 77 inches or larger.
In the past MWC 2017, Sony unveiled the world’s first Smartphone with 4K LCD and it is scheduled to release the Xperia XZ2 Premium with 4K LCD on July 4. Attention is growing whether 4K resolution market is to be launched in earnest in smartphones.
Following Bang & Olufsen and SONY, Philips’ OLED TV was launched in Korea on June 11, 2018.
Philips’ OLED TV, applied with LG Display’s OLED panel, is available in two models; 55 – inch and 65 – inch. It features a quad – core CPU, HDR 10, Dolby Vision and DTS surround.
In the 2018 OLED material and component report and Market Track published by UBI Research, the entire market for OLED materials and components market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 29% by 2022, forming a market of US$ 37 billion in 2022.
The Chinese companies’ volume offensive raised concerns that the OLED industry, following liquid crystal displays, could face oversupply problems. Analysts say that while South Korean display manufacturers’ performance in the first quarter has deteriorated due to a sharp drop in prices of LCD panels, even OLEDs, which are seen as new growth engines, could be on the verge of oversupply in the near future.
Sony announced the upcoming release of the ‘ECX339A’, a 0.5-inch OLED micro-display with UXGA resolution. According to Sony, it has achieved the world’s smallest pixel pitch of 6.3 μm, enabling a resolution 1.6 times higher than its predecessor, “ECX337A “(0.5-inch QVGA (1280 × 960)).
In SID 2018, Hwang Chang-Hoon, CEO of OLEDON, announced a new plane source FMM deposition technology that can produce ultra-high resolution AMOLED of 2,250 ppi.
China TCL will invest RMB 42.8 billion (US$ 6.71 billion) in Shenzhen to establish a factory for large-area OLED panel production. According to South China Morning Post, TCL recently announced that it will produce 90,000 units on the basis of 70-inch panel in the new production line of Gen 11 (3370 mm x 2940 mm) with the goal of mass production in March 2021 in the data submitted to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. The main products are to be known as 65-inch and 75-inch OLED panels, and 65-inch, 70-inch and 75-inch display panels with 8K resolution.
At the SID2018 exhibition in Los Angeles, a new concept OLED with no front speakers on the Smartphone was introduced.
Attentions are growing for the foldable smartphone since it can provide a wider screen and higher resolution than the display of conventional smartphones, while maintaining the portability of the smartphone. The foldable smartphone is a smartphone when folded, and it becomes a tablet PC when it is unfolded. Following Samsung Electronics, Huawei is also aiming to launch a smartphone with a foldable display this year.
Samsung Electronics is expected to launch next-generation smartphones with full-screen rigid OLEDs, next to the popular Galaxy A8 (2018) series. Accordingly, attention is focused whether the sluggish rigid OLED market will revive.
At the best 2018 TV released recently by Consumer Reports, US consumer magazine, LG Electronics’ 65-inch OLED TV ‘OLED65C8PUA’ was selected as the best product among all the products.
OLEDWorks, specialized in OLED lighting, recently announced the launch of ‘OLEDSurface Light Module’, which integrates OLED lighting, driver and frame.
In the premium TV market, the share of OLED TVs is steadily increasing, and the price gap with LCD is gradually decreasing. As a result, LCD TV (QD-LCD TV) companies using quantum dot technology are sluggish in the premium TV market.
“If foldable Smartphone is launched and commercialized in earnest, the high-priced tablet PC market is likely to disappear.”
Choong-hoon Yi, president of UBI Research, said in ‘the Latest OLED Technology Trends Seminar’ held at COEX in Seoul on the 26th April, 2018.
At the latest OLED technology trends seminar organized by UBI Research in Seoul COEX on April 26th, professor Seo presented about the status of solution processed OLED for large-area TV production.
“It needs to consider how to resolve the price competitiveness compared to other displays, such as OLED, before Micro LED is to be applied to the big screen TVs of 60 inches and 70 inches in future.”
Samsung Electronics reported sales of KRW 60.56 trillion and operating profit of KRW 15.64 trillion in the first quarter of 2018 at the conference held on April 26. Its display division generated sales of KRW7.54 trillion with the operating profit of KRW410 billion.
Samsung Display selected blue OLED + QDCF (blue OLED) as next generation display technology following LCD TV, and started the necessary development.
Blue OLED is a technology, in which blue light emitted from blue OLED passes through a quantum dot color filter to represent red and green colors (b). The WRGB OLED used in OLED TV is a method in which white light passes through a color filter and implements RGB colors (a).
At the 6th China Information Technology Expo (CITE 2018) held in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China from April 8 to 11, 2018, a number of panel makers and set makers exhibited notch-designed display panels and smart phones.
CITE, an electronics trade show held in China on April 10, 2018, had a relatively lukewarm atmosphere with significantly fewer visitors than last year. It seems to have been influenced by the lack of special IT issues, compared to last year when it was crowded with the attention of many general visitors.
Since Apple first unveiled its OLED smartphone in the notch design type on iPhone X, lots of smartphone makers are to release OLED smartphones in succession. Attention is focused whether notch-type OLED smartphones will be become trends in the smartphone market in 2018.
According to the ‘2018 1Q AMOLED Display Market Track’ published by UBI Research, OLED panel shipments for smartphones are projected to grow at an annual average growth rate of 15.8%, from 450 million units in 2018 to 850 million units by 2022. This is a 9.6% decline from the CAGR 25.4% expected in the fourth quarter of 2017.
LG Display is showing OLEDs applied to various applications in the ‘China Information Technology Expo 2018’ held in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China from April 9 to 11, 2018.
Samsung Electronics is currently occupying the premium TV market with QD-LCD TVs, which use ‘PL-QD (photoluminescence quantum dot) technology’. This technology has a mechanism in which the material stimulated by external light re-emits light.
OLED lighting applied to automotive rear lamps was introduced again.
At Light + Building 2018 in Frankfurt, Germany held from March 18 to March 23, 2018, LG Display exhibited the rear lamp to be applied to Mercedes-Benz S-class coupe. The OLED rear lamp, which was first shown at the Frankfurt Motor Show last October, is made up of 33 rigid OLED panels and a combination with LED.