Although flexible AMOLED panel shipments for smartphones are expected to continue growing in 2018, the pace will be much slower than expected, according to a report from IHS Markit.
Shipments of film-based, flexible AMOLED panels for smartphones more than tripled in 2017 to 125 million units from 40 million units in 2016 and were expected to see continued strong growth in 2018. However, sales of the iPhone X have not met market expectations, mainly because of the $1,000-plus price tag, which is partially down to the pricier display panel, which has caused smartphone vendors to reconsider their AMOLED purchasing plans, according to senior director Hiroshi Hayase.
Now, flexible AMOLED panel shipments for smartphones are expected to reach 167 million units in 2018, up 34% from 2017, much slower than the expected growth of almost 100%.
Even Apple is reexamining the percentage of its iPhone models using AMOLED panels and those using LCD panels for 2018. Major Chinese smartphone brands such as Huawei, Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi also appear to be continuing to apply LCD panels instead of switching to AMOLED for their 2018 models, while Samsung plans to keep using flexible AMOLED panels for the Galaxy S9 this year.
As a result, demand for AMOLED smartphone panels is expected to slow down. Shipments of total AMOLED panel shipments for smartphones are forecast to grow 14% to 453 million units in 2018, from 397 million units in 2017. Glass-based, rigid AMOLED panel shipments are expected to grow at a single-digit pace to 285 million units in 2018.
On the other hand, as demand for high-resolution smartphone displays is increasing in the mid-to-high-end smartphone market, demand for LCD panels is forecast to keep growing in 2018 to 785 million units, up 19% from 656 million units in 2017. Shipments of LCD panels are expected to grow faster than AMOLED in the mid-to-high-end market in 2018.
Shipments of a-Si TFT-LCD panels used for low-end smartphones and feature phones are forecast to reach 807 million units in 2018, down 16% from 965 million units in 2017, offsetting the growth in AMOLED and LTPS TFT-LCD panel demand. Total shipments of mobile phone displays, including both TFT LCD and AMOLED panels, are forecast to increase by 1% year-on-year to 2.02 billion units in 2018. Hayase commented:
“As AMOLED panels allow more options in terms of form factors, demand for AMOLED for smartphones will continue to grow. However, it will start to outpace LTPS TFT-LCD only after 2020. In order to compete with LCD, production cost of both rigid and flexible AMOLED panels still need to be slashed, to close the price gap with LCD”.
