According to reports from Korea, Samsung Electronics has decided to adopt an AMOLED displays in its upcoming budget phone, the Galaxy A15. This will be the lowest cost Samsung phone to ever sport an OLED display.

Most of Samsung's entry-level phones use an LCD, but it seems that as prices of OLED panels continue to drop, Samsung is introducing its OLED into a wider range of phones. In fact it is said that Samsung's production cost of a rigid OLED is currently lower than the production cost of an equivalent LCD display. The A15 will use a 6.4" rigid (glass-based) panel, and the phone itself will cost around $270 when it launches next year, for the 5G variant. 

A report from Korea's The Elec publication says that Samsung Display is highly interested in next-generation OLED deposition technologies, that are not based on a metal mask (FMM). Several companies are developing and commercialization such technologies. As these may enable higher-performance OLED production, Samsung Display is interested.

A few months ago we reported that SDC is interested in SEL's maskless production technology, and indeed the new The Elec report states that the two companies are in talks. SEL is one of the three companies we are aware of that have advanced maskless technologies, the other two being Visionox and Japan Display. Samsung Display is mostly interested in a technology that it can exclusively license as it does not want other companies to produce OLEDs using the same technology. Both Visionox and JDI are interested in using their technologies in-house, which is a problem for SDC.

TrendForce says that 508,000 OLED monitors will ship in 2023, up 323% from 2022. The market will continue to grow at a fast pace, to over a million shipments in 2024.

In 2024, TrendForce sees LG and Samsung both launching new OLED panels for the monitor market, which will help to expand the market. TrendForce further says that at the end of 2023, Samsung Electronics and LGE both hold a market share of almost 30%, Dell holds a market share of around 20% and Asus of nearly 10%.

In 2021, we reported that two researchers working at Samsung Display were convicted of handing over OLED technology to other companies, and are being sent to prison for two years. Representative and directors of the company that bought the technology was also sent to prison and the company was fined. The technology in question relates to Optical Adhesive Materials used in OLED production processes. The arrest of these employees was reported earlier in 2020.

It is now reported that another employee of Samsung Display, also involved in that case (seems to be he was the main organizer of the outfit) fled Korea following his indictment, but has now returned voluntarily to Korea and has been arrested and is now bring charged with violating unfair competition laws in Korea. 

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.

Value Electronics hosted their annual TV shootout, checking several high-end TVs to see which model provides the best images. The TVs were professionally calibrated, and tested one next to the other. In total, Value Electronics' shootout featured 6 65" 4K TVs - 3 OLEDs and 3 MiniLED LCD. IN the 8K shootout, there were 3 TVs, from Samsung, Sony and LG. As in previous years, OLED TVs were crowned the "King of TVs", in both the 4K and 8K categories.

For the 4K TV shootout, the best TV in the shootout was Sony's A95L QD-OLED TV. The runner-ups were Samsung's S95C (another QD-OLED TV) and LG's G3 OLED (with an LGD WOLED Panel). The 8K shootout's winner was LG's Z2 WOLED TV.

DSCC estimates that OLED revenues in 2023 will be $36.1 billion - down 13% from last year. Just a few months ago DSCC's forecast for 2023 was $38.9 billion. This is the second year that the OLED market is contracting. In terms of shipments, there will be a 5% decrease in 2023. Looking forward to 2024, DSCC sees the market starting to recover, as demand for IT displays, TVs and smartphones will increase.

Looking at specific markets in 2023, DSCC says that OLED smartphone shipments will remain flat, but will drop 11% in revenues - as the demand for higher-end flexible displays is lower than in 2022. The only positive is the foldable display market, where shipments will increase 33% in 2023 compared to last year. 2023 also experiences a big drop in demand for OLED TVs - DSCC sees shipments declining 31% in 2023. The same goes for laptop OLEDs - a 32% decrease in sales in 2023.

According to reports from Korea, both Samsung Display and LG Display have approached Apple, offering to produce MLA (Multi-Lens Array) AMOLED displays for a future iPhone device. Applying the MLA panel will increase the light output, but will carry higher costs and may also reduce the viewing angles (or actually reduce the side-view brightness).

It is not clear what kind of effect will MLA offer in Apple's case. When LG applied MLA to its TV panels, the company says it improved the brightness by 60% (it also stated that viewing angles actually increased by 30%). Apple will not be the first one to apple MLA to smartphone displays - Samsung itself adopted MLA panels in some of its high-end models (Galaxy S Ultra phones) and so did some other vendors.

During a trade show, Samsung Display discussed its zero-border, or full-screen OLED technology. Samsung is developing several technologies to enable this kind of display - including 3D bonding, edge brightness control, and an under-the-display camera (Samsung calls its UPC, under-panel-camera). 

Placing the camera under the OLED is a critical part of this solution, and Samsung said that it is developing the technology to enable this - including an increase of 50% in the light transmission of its OLED displays and a new sub-pixel structure that improves the display quality.