OLED-Info: the OLED experts

We are happy to announce that our popular OLED Marketplace is now offering microLED microdisplays. MicroLEDs, while still at an early technology and industry stage, offer extremely high brightness, which is useful for AR applications, and are now entering the market.

The first microLED that is on offer is a 0.12" VGA ultra-high-brightness monochrome display. It is available as either a display panel, or a complete display engine with optics (see image above). 

Apple is moving forward with its first foldable OLED iPhone project, that will launch later in 2026, and the US company has ordered 11 million units from SDC towards the end of 2025. According to the latest reports, Apple is getting more optimistic about the demand for its foldable iPhone, and has recently increased its order by around 20% (or about 2 million more panels).

The foldable phone also includes another AMOLED panel for the external display, so Apple ordered also 2 million more of these panels. According to earlier reports, the price of each foldable AMOLED is around $250 - which means that this new order amount to something around $500 million, bringing the total foldable iPhone orders so far to around $3.5 billion. This is good news for Samsung that is suffering from a weak smartphone display market in China.

A report from Korea suggests that Samsung Display has decided to resume its QD Nanorod Diode (QNED) technology development, that it has paused a few years ago, following a technology breakthrough related to the QD nanorod arrangement and placement technology.

Samsung's QNED technology is based on blue emitting nanorods (somewhat similar to microLEDs), coated with QDs for color conversion. Samsung's nanorod and QD deposition are both based on inkjet printing. The company originally hoped to achieve pilot production in 2021, but it faced several technical challenges, and eventually decided to abandon R&D - until this resumed last year.

The global memory chip industry is facing a very large demand from AI datacenters, causing a dramatic increase in memory prices - and a global supply problems. The OLED industry is effected - mainly as and smartphone makers are seen to opt for lower-cost LCDs over OLEDs in some devices to offset the cost. 

In fact, the demand for smartphones is expected to drop in general - is now estimated that in 2026, less than 600 million smartphones will ship by Chinese brands - down from 700 million in 2025, and on top of that, demand for OLEDs may be lower.-

According to Omdia, polarizer-free OLED display shipments will more than double in 2026, to reach 72 million units (up from 31 million in 2025) - and continue to grow to reach almost 250 million units in 2032 (a CAGR of 22.7%).

Omdia says that the removal of the polarizer layer, and replacing it with color filters on the encapsulation layer (Color Filter-on-Encapsulation, or COE), enables a meaningful increase in light emission, thinner structure, greater design flexibility, and improved color reproduction and privacy features. Some companies are using simpler technologies to replace the polarizer layer, like a simplified polarizer layer, that do not offer the high image quality of standard OLEDs or the increased efficiency of COE OLEDs, but are lower in cost. 

BYD launched its 2026 Yangwang U8 off-roader, an EV that adopts BYD's latest Blade Battery and Flash Charging technologies. 

The Yangwang U8 has several large displays, including a 12.8" curved central OLED display.

In 2025 , the US and Japan signed a trade agreement, which included a commitment by Japan to invest $550 billion directly in the US. These funds will be targeted at industries such as energy, critical minerals, pharmaceutical and medical, shipbuilding - and semiconductor manufacturing and research, with an aim to rebuild U.S. capacity from design to fabrication.

According to a new report from Japan, and as part of that trade agreement and investment commitment, the Japanese government is now looking at building a $13 billion fab in the US, that will be operated by Japan Display.