OLED equipment market for Apple to reach W15tr by 2020

[THE INVESETOR] With Apple’s planned adoption of organic light-emitting diode display for its iPhone next year, the related equipment market is estimated to reach US$13 billion by 2020, a local research firm said July 7.

According to UBI Research, orders from Apple alone could make up about 47 percent of the global equipment market for sixth-generation flexible OLED, worth US$28.4 billion for the next five years. 

The sixth-generation flexible OLED is increasingly adopted for smartphones and other mobile devices.

Samsung uses OLED for almost 70 percent of its smartphones ranging from the flagship Galaxy S series to some lower-end models. Starting with Apple’s first adoption, other smartphone-makers, including those in China, are also expected to adopt the upgraded display technology.

UBI predicts that Apple will adopt OLED display screen for its new iPhone from next year and the full adoption will come in 2018. Currently, Apple sells more than 200 million units every year, about 15 percent market share in global smartphone sales.

The firm said flexible OLED shipments will exceed 1 billion units by 2021. Of them, Apple’s share will surge from 20 percent in 2017 to 50 percent in 2021.

Largely driven by the soaring demand for Apple products, its key supplier Samsung Display, an affiliate of Samsung Electronics, is also expected to see a tenfold increase in its production capacity for the next five years.

“Samsung Display is expected to expand its OLED production capacity by 30,000 panels every year for Apple alone,” a UBI official said.

By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)