In October 2021, Nintendo launched its first OLED gaming console, the Nintendo Switch OLED. The new OLED device is popular - eight months after the launch Nintendo announced it shipped over 5.8 million devices, and now the company announced it has sold over 7 million Nintendo Switch OLED devices in Japan alone. Nintendo is now selling around 2.5 million units per quarter, and this means that global sales are likely over 20 million.

The Nintendo Switch is a popular device - total lifetime sales across all variants are over 130 million units. The OLED model was the clear preference for people buying a Switch recently. The Nintendo Switch OLED model is an upgrade to the original Switch with a 7-inch 1280x720 OLED display (produced by Samsung Display). The Nintendo Switch OLED model is now shipping globally for $349.

SID's DisplayWeek is the world's leading display conference, and the OLED-Info team will attend this year's event. DisplayWeek will take place in San Jose this year, and will bring together a large part of the display industry. We're looking forward to seeing new display technologies, products and demonstrators and meeting up with industry leaders!

DisplayWeek includes a 3-day exhibition, 4-day technical symposium, short courses, seminars, three focus conferences (business, investors and market-focus) - and the 2024 annual meeting of the MicroLED Industry Association. We'll be happy to schedule meetings - so if you plan to come to the event, do contact us. We're really looking forward to a week full of display technologies!

Apple was the first company to develop LTPO backplanes and it adopted this innovative and energy-efficient backplane technology back in 2018 in the Watch Series 4. LTPO combines Oxide-TFT and LTPS, by using the IGZO in some of the switching TFTs and LTPS in the remaining switching TFTs and all the driving TFTs. LTPO can reduce the power consumption by 5-15%, and enables variable refresh rate.

According to reports from Korea, Apple developed its 2nd-Gen LTPO backplane technology, that uses the IGZO in all the driving TFTs, and uses LTPS only in the remaining switching TFTs. This leads to higher efficiency compared to the first-generation LTPO backplane.

DSCC says that the OLED market grew around 50% (revenues) in the second half of 2023, compared to the first half of 2023. DSCC expects the OLED market to continue growing in 2024, with revenues to increase 4% over 2023 (with a 11% growth in unit shipments).

The growth in 2024 will mainly be driven by higher demand for AMOLED smartphone panels, TVs and IT applications. In the whole of 2023, DSCC estimates that the market contracted by 4%, and it is now returning to growth. 

In 2019 Samsung Display announced its decision to invest $10.85 billion in QD-OLED TV R&D and production lines. A few years later, SDC started to produce panels in its first fab, mass producing TV and monitor QD-OLEDs. The company attracted several customers (Sony and Samsung Electronics for TV panels, and several companies for its monitors), and these displays have been very well received by the market.

Since 2022, Samsung has increased its production yields, and increased its production capacity, and today it produces around 40,000 substrates a month in its 8.5-Gen production line. Reviews of QD-OLED gaming monitors and TVs are very positive, with many analysts seeing QD-OLED as improving over LGD's WOLED panels in terms of image quality. 

But the reality at Samsung Display's QD-OLED division, is likely not so rosy. It seems that the technology is facing both market challenges and technology challenges - which may lead to a decision by Samsung to abandon it altogether. 

A report from Korea suggests that SDC has transferred around 500 of its engineers from its large-area OLED development division, or about 30% of them, to its divisions that focus on small and medium-sized AMOLED development.

Samsung tri-folding AMOLED prototype

According to the report, the main reason for SDC's change of priorities is due to the need to remain competitive with Chinese-based OLED makers that are offering OLED panels at low costs. Samsung estimates that it is ahead of its Chinese competitors by only a year or a year and half, and it is just a matter of time until Chinese companies catch up with South Korea makers (SDC and LGD).

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. 

Audi unveiled its 2025 Q7 and SQ7 SUVs, with the latter offering the company's 2nd-gen OLED taillights. It is not clear whether these will be standard or optional.

Audi did not detail much about these OLED taillights - but these are likely to be similar to the ones used in the new Q6 e-tron, which uses a total of 360 individual OLED panels built into 6 different lighting panels (each made from 60 OLED panels, or segments as Audi calls them).

UBI Research released its latest foldable OLED shipments forecast, saying that it expects the market to grow from 27.4 million units in 2024 to 52.7 million 2028.

The market is dominated by Samsung Display, which shipped 13.4 million foldable OLEDs in 2023, and holds a 61% market. Samsung is followed by BOE (6.2 million, growing 3X from 2022), TCL CSOT (1.1 million) and Visionox (1.1 million). UBI expects Samsung Display to remain the clear leader in this market as it is the sole supplier to Samsung Electronics - and it is also expected that Samsung will be the exclusive supplier to Apple's future foldable iPhones.