Plastic & flexible OLED market to reach $18 billion in 2020

Samsung Display and LG Display are fighting for dominance in the OLED market.

According to IDTechEx Research's latest report, OLED Display Forecasts 2016-2026: The Rise of Plastic and Flexible Displays, the market will reach nearly $2 billion this year and will grow to $18 billion by 2020.

The two main manufacturers of OLED displays have announced large investment to expand their production capacity. Samsung Display plans to spend more than $3 billion between 2015 and 2017 to build a new production line. Its rival LG Display is trying to lead the industry by committing over $9 billion for two new plants.

OLED displays that are manufactured on flexible substrates have been successfully introduced on the market, featuring in consumer devices such as the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge and the Apple Watch. Compared with conventional glass-based screens, plastic OLED displays are much thinner and lighter, enabling slimmer devices or bigger batteries. Future flexible panels will also make foldable mobile devices a reality, observes Dr Guillaume Chansin, senior technology analyst at IDTechEx.

The rise of plastic and flexible displays is the most important trend in the industry and is offering opportunities in the supply chain, Chansin noted. Recently, Kateeva raised another $88m to accelerate its growth. The company supplies the mass production equipment to deposit thin-film encapsulation on flexible OLED displays. All the new investors are located in China and include BOE and TCL Capital.

To read the full article, go to EETimes.

See a comparison table of selected OLED display suppliers on GlobalSources.com