UBI

UBI Research estimates that Apple suffers from poor demand for its iPad Pro devices, and the company has reduced its orders from LG Display and Samsung Display. We heard signs of that already back in August.

UBI estimates that LG Display's medium to large sized OLED panels shipments decreased 34% in Q3 2024, compared to the previous quarter. Samsung Display's tablet OLED panel sales dropped 38% in the quarter. Samsung however enjoyed higher sales of automotive OLEDs, which means that its entire medium-to-large sales were flat in the quarter.

UBI Research estimates that 12 million OLED tablet panels will ship in 2024, and increase of over 500% from 2023 (1.84 million units), following Apple's adoption of OLEDs in its iPad Pro devices for the first time.

UBI sees the tablet OLED display market continuing to grow, and is expected to reach 30 million units in 2028. The current market leaders are Samsung Display and LG Display, but other display makers are also targeting this market, with BOE aiming to ship 1.5 million OLED tablet panels in 2024, and Visionox around 800,000 units.

UBI Research says that shipments of foldable OLED smartphone panels more than doubled in Q2 2024 (compared to the first quarter), reaching 9.94 million units. Foldable OLED smartphone panels accounted for 5.2% of the total OLED smartphone display market.

UBI expects foldable OLED panel shipments to continue growing in the second half of 2024, and sees total 2024 shipments exceeding 40 million. By 2028, the company expects foldable OLED panels to reach an almost 10% out of the entire OLED smartphone market.

UBI Research says that it expects the total shipments of OLED emitting materials to reach 131 tons in 2024. The market will grow to 177 tons by 2028, a CAGR of 7.9%. In terms of revenues, the market will grow from $2.4 billion in 2024 to $2.7 billion in 2028.

UBI says that demand for OLED displays is on the rise, fueled by increased adoption in entry-level phones and IT products. 

According to UBI Research, the OLED tablet panel market is set to grow quickly, more than doubling between 2024 (12 million units expected) to 2028 (28.4 million). That's a CAGR of 24.1%.

UBI says that the market in 2023 was only 1.8 million panels - so growth in 2024 will be dramatic (almost 7X), mostly thanks to Apple's adoption of OLEDs in some of its iPad modules (expected to be announced next month). Samsung will produce 11" panels for Apple, while LGD will produce larger 12.9" panels. 

MicroLED Connect, our hybrid event series focusing on the microLED industry, will be hosting a two-day virtual event focused on the OLED innovations, technologies, manufacturing, markets and more. The online event will take place next week, on April 10-11, and will be an excellent opportunity to learn the latest OLED updates and connect with industry professionals on our excellent online event platform.

Today we have published the agenda for this event, with 20 exciting talks by leading OLED developers, supply chain companies and top-edge researchers. This will be an excellent opportunity to learn and connect with the OLED industry. You can register for the event here, with a yearly pass to MicroLED-Connect (with an option to also include entry into our September on-site event in Eindhoven, The Netherlands). Our members also gain access to past event recordings.

UBI Research updated its forecast for the OLED material industry, saying that total sales of OLED materials will grow from $1.84 billion in 2023 to $2.43 billion in 2028, a growth of 5.8% CAGR.

UBI says that in 2028, SDC will purchase OLED emitters in $810 million, LGD in $550 million and BOE in $440 million.

In July 2023, Samsung officially launched the 83" 83S90C, the company's first TV to use LG's WOLED panels, following several years of negotiations and hesitation by the Korean rivals.

It was assumed that Samsung's total orders from LGD will be limited (as the 83-inch are expensive and not highly popular), and according to UBI, the total number of panels that LGD actually shipped to Samsung is only 'several thousands'.

Universal Display is progressing with its blue PHOLED material, and earlier this month the company said it is on track to introduce the new material commercially in 2024. During a company seminar, UBI's Daejeong Yoon updated that according to their latest information, Samsung Display has decided to adopt a blue phosphorescence material in the second half of 2025 - a year later than expected.

Samsung is calling the new material stack B1, and it says that the new stack will increase the efficiency of its OLED device by more than 65% (which seems to be rather too much, maybe it means 65% of the power consumption of the current stack). UBI says that the blue OLED still suffers from low lifetime - the lifetime of the blue PHOLED stack is only 55% of the lifetime of its current fluorescence-blue stack, but regardless of that the company will introduce it commercially due to the power consumption efficiency.

UBI Research estimates that 7.9 million AMOLED displays for IT applications (tablets, notebooks and monitors) will ship in 2023, growing to 31 million by 2027 (a CAGR of 41%). Apple's adoption of OLED screens starting in 2024 will fuel much of the demand.

OLED makers, led by Samsung, LG, BOE and Visionox are all expected to start producing IT OLED panels in existing 6-Gen production lines, and companies are also planning to construct new dedicated 8.5-Gen lines for IT applications.