What They Say
DSCC looked in a blog article at the impact of a weak smartphone market on OLED panel procurements and expects Q2 2022 to be down 17% QoQ and 10% YoY to 119 million panels and with revenues down 23% QoQ and 17% YoY to $63 billion with rigid OLEDs much harder hit than flexible (-42% YoY), although that category will be down 15% quarterly but with a 30% YoY increase.
For the full year, the firm expects OLED panels to hit 592 million, down 5%, with flexible up just 2% and with a 59% unit share. Revenue for rigid panels will be down 32% YoY and share will drop from 26% to 21% on a revenue basis.
The article looks at procurement by brand and display share for 4G and 5G networks and also by refresh rate. 120Hz+ should reach 40% this year from 10% in 2020 and 29% in 2021.
What We Think
The relative resilience of rigid OLED in Q3 and Q4 looks slightly surprising to me given the tough times for rigid OLEDs over the last 6 quarters. However, economic pressures and more lower priced handsets with 5G and using rigid OLEDs probably accounts for this. (BR)
Quarterly OLED Smartphone Panels by Substrate, Q1’21-Q4’22
