According to the IHS report, the paradigm of small- and medium-sized panel makers are rapidly shifting from rigid OLED panels to flexible AMOLED panels. This is driven by a rapid fall in low temperature poly-silicon (LTPS) LCD prices from the first half of 2014 and thus weak price competiveness of small- and medium-sized AMOLED panels.
Therefore, panel makers including Samsung Display and LG Display are pursuing enhancing technological differentiation from LCD panels to expand supply capacity of flexible AMOLED panels. Flexible AMOLED panel shipments should exceed 11% of the total rigid AMOLED shipments in 2015.
The use of an AMOLED has been rapidly increasing in the small- and medium-sized display market, thanks to its greater color reproduction rate and faster response speed than LCD. After Samsung Display Co. (SDC) began mass production of small-sized AMOLED panels in 2007, Samsung Electronics Co. strategically used AMOLED panels in its Galaxy smartphone series. Since then, small devices, such as smartphones, have led the OLED panel market to grow substantially.
At an initial stage of the market for the large-sized OLED panel mainly applied to a TV set, Sony Corp. produced the world’s first OLED panel (11 inches) in 2007, followed by LG Display Co. introducing 15-inch OLED panels in 2009.
However, interests in the large-sized OLED panel soon dissipated because production costs of an OLED panel were much higher than those of an LCD or a plasma display panel (PDP). Only test products had been available until 2011. Then LG Electronics Inc. rolled out the 55-inch FHD OLED TV in January 2013 for the first time in the world, and released 55-, 65-, and 77-inch UHD OLED TVs in 2015, reigniting enthusiasm over the large-sized OLED panel.
Responding to the latest trend, some panel makers have been preparing to start an AMOLED panel business in the near future in hopes that the panel could bring more added values. Following the launches of a wide range of smartwatches and smartphones using flexible AMOLED panels in recent days, hopes are high for a next wave of innovation in the display panel industry.
Despite such growing interest in the AMOLED panel, Samsung Display remains the dominant player in the AMOLED panel market as of the first quarter of 2015.
Manufacturing an AMOLED panel still requires more sophisticated technologies than a TFT-LCD display. Nor will it be easy for the AMOLED panel to gain a competitive edge in terms of performance and prices in the display market that is already dominated by the TFT-LCD display.
Therefore, it is necessary for a panel maker to precisely analyze the market competition and come up with a sophisticated market entering strategy based on the differentiated technology of the AMOLED panel to make it successfully enter the market.
