iSuppli Corp. forecasts mobile handset displays will reach 1.2 billion unit shipments in 2006, up 17 percent from 1.05 billion in 2005. Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED) main displays will represent a mere 1 percent of the main display market this year. By 2010, this mix will change, with TFT-LCDs representing 87 percent of the market, monochrome and color STN-LCDs comprising only 4 percent of shipments and 9 percent of the market being served by OLED main displays.

While TFT-LCDs will thrive in the mobile handset display market in the coming years, overall mobile OLED panel shipments will slowly climb to reach 47 million units shipped in 2006, up from 32 million units in 2005. The largest growth area for mobile-phone OLEDs will be in the main display market, where iSuppli forecasts shipments will grow to 160 million units by 2012, up from a mere 13.7 million units in 2006.

As AMOLED manufacturing becomes established, it will account for more than 20 percent of the OLED display units shipped by 2009 and about 40 percent of OLED display units shipped by 2012.

Japanese suppliers have taken a dominant position in the fast-growing market for equipment used for manufacturing organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays, according to a new study from iSuppli Corp.

OLED unit sales expected to expand by a factor of 11 during the next six years, as their use expand in mobile phones, media players and other products, iSuppli predicts.

Although the outlook for OLEDs is robust, near-term sales growth is being inhibited by inadequacies in production equipment. Both technical and business issues are playing a role in slowing OLED equipment development.

A major challenge in the OLED equipment realm is a lack of standardisation. Every piece of OELD manufacturing gear is effectively custom-made-even if the manufacturer offers a set menu of features and options. This is because OLED processes vary wildly and are not optimised; panel makers need special adjustments as well as built-in flexibility for the inevitable changes that are still occurring.

Driven by cards and small public viewing screens, the flexible display panel market is expected to grow from $5 million in 2006 to $339 million in 2013, or 83.5 percent a year, according to iSuppli Corp.

Display types being used for flexible screens include LCD, Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED), electrophoretic and electrochromic. Flexible display technology has over the past year made progress in resolving technical and process issues, but remains behind on application and product development.

Thanks to the rising use of OLED as an alternative to LCDs in mobile-phone displays, worldwide OLED panel market revenue expanded to $408 million in 2004, up 63 percent from $251 million in 2003, iSuppli Corp. said today.

Among OLED vendors, rapid sales growth in 2004 for these displays allowed Samsung SDI to leverage strong presence in the mobile-phone business to take the top rank for the global OLED panel market, garnering 44 percent of unit sales. The company replaced Pioneer of Japan as the leading OLED supplier. Samsung’s OLED shipments were boosted by internal sales to its mobile-phone business.

OLEDs are currently being utilized as the main display of mobile phones, as opposed to being a secondary display, as has been the case until recently. Mobile phones also are increasingly using color OLED panels.

For the number two OLED vendor spot, Taiwan’s RiTdisplay edged out Pioneer with 22 percent of sales. RiTdisplay has made a rapid entry into the nascent market for OLED displays in MP3 players than its competitors. Pioneer slid to third place with 20 percent of OLED sales.

Samsung SDI said recently that they intend to double its PMOLED capacity this year, aiming to sell 28 million OLED panels in 2005 (up from 14 million in 2004). Samsung is upbeat on PMOLED panels as a result of demand from high-end mobile phone makers.

Samsung expects OLED revenue to reach $615 million in 2005 and $1.1 billion in 2006. These numbers originate from iSuppli.

Market research firm iSuppli says that OLED displays sales (and revenue) are expected to fall short of expectation, due to rising competitive pressure from lower cost LCDs.