Simply Better Tech
OLED panels are expected to surpass 50 percent adoption in smartphone displays for the first time this year.
According to industry sources on July 20, OLED displays have overtaken LCDs as a dominant display ecosystem and are expanding their applications. Consumers have become pickier as they encounter displays in their daily lives, from smartphones to small home appliances and even street signage. This explains why the adoption rate of OLED displays with their fast response time and high resolution has climbed.
In particular, the sharpest rise has been marked in OLED display use for smartphones. According to global market research firm Counterpoint Research, the share of smartphones with OLED panels reached a record high of 49 percent in the first quarter of this year. Another market research firm, TrendForce, predicts that the adoption rate of OLED panels in smartphones will exceed 50 percent this year.
The acceleration of the use of OLED panels in smartphones was triggered by Samsung Electronics and Apple, the two major players in the global smartphone market. Samsung has used OLED panels in its smartphones since 2020 and Apple since 2021.
Samsung is slated to release the Galaxy Z Flip-Fold 5 in late July and Apple is expected to release the iPhone 15 series in September. DSCC predicted that panel shipments for the iPhone 15 in June and July would be 100 percent more than those of its predecessor, the iPhone 14. The rising popularity of foldable phones with flexible OLED displays has also been cited as one of the reasons behind the rising adoption rate of OLED displays in smartphones. Industry insiders expect OLED display adoption for smartphones to surpass 50 percent, as both companies will launch new smartphone models in the second half of this year.
OLED panel adoption also extends to information technology (IT) products. Omdia forecasts OLED panel shipments for monitors will reach 800,000 units this year, 1.74 million units in 2024, and more than triple to 2.77 million units in 2026. Currently, the penetration rate of OLED panels in IT products is only about 3 percent, but the display industry sees a steep growth trend. OLED displays are also essential to displays for next-generation industrial devices such as AR, VR and XR devices, and in-car infotainment.
In April, Samsung Display, the number one player in small and medium-sized OLED panels, announced that it will invest 4.1 trillion won over the next three years to build the world’s first new 8.6-generation IT OLED display production facility. LG Display, a leader in large-scale OLED displays, is expanding its small- and medium-sized OLED display production lines at its Paju factory in Korea by investing 3.3 trillion won over three years from 2021. The company is steadily scaling up the proportion of small and medium-sized OLED displays.