The OLED-Info newsletter, October 2018
Published: Tue, 10/02/18
Apple launches new OLED iPhones and Watch
As expected, Apple launched three new smartphones. The 2018-2019 lineup includes the OLED iPhone XS and XS Max and the iPhone XR which uses an LCD display.
The iPhone XS is the successor to the iPhone X - this phone sports a 5.8-inch 1125x2436 flexible notch-type AMOLED display (produced by Samsung Display), 4GB of RAM and 64/256/512 GB of storage. The XS Max has similar specifications - but with a larger 6.5" 1242x2688 AMOLED and a larger battery. The basic model in the 2018-2019 lineup, the iPhone XR, uses a 6.1" 828x1792 LCD - which looks the same as the OLED and is also a notch-type display.
Apple also launched a new smartwatch - the Watch Series 4. Compared to the current-generation Watch, the new series has a larger AMOLED display - 1.78" 448x363 on the 44 mm watch and a 1.57" 394x324 one on the 40 mm model. Apple confirmed that it is using its patented LTPO backplane technology in these new AMOLED displays. Low-Temperature Poly-crystalline Oxide (LTPO) combines both LTPS TFTs and Oxide TFTs (IGZO, Indium Gallium Zinc Oxide). LTPO can be around 5-15% more efficient compared to the currently-used LTPS backplanes, but is more complicated to produce and may have a lower pixel density. See here for more information on LTPO.
DisplayMate posted a comprehensive review of the Apple iPhone XS Max display - and finds that this display is highly impressive - with a close to text-book perfect calibration and performance. The display is on par with the Galaxy S9 and Note 9 display, and it wins DisplayMate's Best Smartphone Display Award.
The high performance display led us to ask DisplayMate's Raymond Soneira about the producer of this display - and he confirms our estimation - the iPhone XS Max's display was produced by Samsung Display. In the past months we heard many reports claiming that Apple contracted LG Display to produce this 6.5" AMOLED, and now we have proof that eventually Apple chose to keep Samsung as its exclusive supplier for Smartphone AMOLEDs, at least for now.
LG OLED TV updates
IHS Market says that high demand for OLED TV panels has enabled LG Display to increase its asking price, and the average selling price (ASP) of OLED TVs have risen from $695.47 in Q1 2018 to $712.48 in the second quarter. IHS expects LGD to increase the price to $731.9 in Q3 and $729.96 in the Q4 2018.
In August 2018 LG Display announced that it sold over 1.3 million OLED TV panels in the first half of 2018 - and it plans to produce over 1.6 million panels in the second half of the year, to reach a total of 2.9 million panels in 2018 (up from 1.7 million in 2017). IHS estimates that LG Display will ship only 2.54 million OLED TV panels in 2018 - and the market will grow to 3.6 million units in 2019, 6 million units in 2020 and 9.35 million units in 2022.
According to a report from Korea's Kore1-News, LG Display is actually aiming to produce around 2.4-2.5 million OLED TV panels in the second half of 2018, to a total of 3.7-3.8 million in 2018. The new report does not mention how LGD aims to increase its capacity so much as no new capacity is expected to come online in the second of the year - nor do we have any confirmation to that optimistic number.
LGD, meanwhile, said during the company's China Partner Day that the OLED TV sales in Europe, US the Japan - are going very well, but sales in China are lower than expected. According to OLED Association, China-based Skyworth aims to expand its OLED TV module capacity from 300,00 yearly units to a million yearly units. Skyworth will spend $73 million in that factory expansion.
OLED Market updates
Display Supply Chain Consultants (DSCC) updated its AMOLED market forecast, and the company now expects revenues to grow from $26 billion in 2018 to $50 billion in 2022.
DSCC sees fast growth for the OLED market, driven by flexible and foldable displays - and the flexible OLED market will grow at a 32% CAGR from 2018 to 2022. Only a few months ago, though, DSCC estimated that revenues in 2022 will reach $57.2 billion by 2022.
By 2022, OLEDs will overtake LCDs in the smartphone market, thanks to the strong growth of flexible and foldable OLEDs. By 2022, OLED TV (and Samsung's QD-OLED TV) shipments will reach 13.1 million units. DSCC also updated its OLED equipment market forecast, as DSCC now expects OLED spending to recover only in 2022.
IDTechEx also released a new OLED display market report, and the analysts from IDTechEx estimate that OLED revenues will reach $25.5 billion in 2018 and will grow to $30.72 billion in 2019.
Nubia's foldable Alpha
China-based Nubia unveiled a new smartphone-smartphone wearable device called the Nubia Alpha, which uses a tall 3.23" foldable OLED display. Nubia says that this device will ship in China by the end of 2018.
If Nubia actually ships its Alpha device before the end of 2018, it may become the first company to ship a foldable OLED smartphone. Samsung is gearing up to start foldable OLED production in 2018 but its first foldable smartphone is likely to ship in early 2019. Huawei is also said to get ready to release a foldable phone before the end of 2018 - using displays made by BOE. The Nubia foldable AMOLED, though, is produced by Visionox.
Flexible OLEDS carry a 5X premium over LTPS LCDs
Display Supply Chain Consultants (DSCC) estimates that a 6" flexible OLED Module (with a touch layer) costs around $78 (and will drop slightly to $76 by the end of the year). Meanwhile the price of a similar rigid OLED is around $26 and an LTPS LCD is around $16.
LCD producers have lowered the prices dramatically in the last two years (from $29 in early 2017 to $16 today), and rigid OLED producers have been forced the lower their prices as well (from $42 in early 2017 to $26 today).
Can OLED lighting cost be reduced to 1 Euro / 100 lm?
In 2015 the EU launched the €4.4 million Flexolighting project (led by Brunel University London) with an aim to develop new materials, processes and methods to overcome current OLED lighting challenges - including lifetime, lighting uniformity and more. The project's consortium announced that following the project completion and a rethinking of the complete OLED supply chain, it believes that high efficiency OLED lighting panels can be produced at a cost that is on a similar level with LED lighting.
The Flexolighting project partners estimated in 2015 that the cost of producing an OLED lighting panel is around €15 per 100 lumens. By introducing several new techniques (including new substrate materials, printing of some of the layers, a novel new encapsulation process and light extraction films that boost the efficiency) the cost can be reduced to around €1 per 100 lumens.
Samsung's Micro-LED news
Samsung launched a new home screen TV range in India, called Active LED (also "LED for Home") - modular LED-based TV tiles that are offered in 4 sizes (from 110-inch FHD to 260-inch UHD). These are likely to be Micro-LED emissive displays (or emissive mini-LEDs, most likely), even though Samsung did not actually gave any specifications yet.
The Active LEDs are priced from 10 million Rs (around $137,000) for the 110" to 35 million Rs ($480,000) for the 260-inch TV. As these are modular TVs, consumers can choose different shapes (but only one of the four available resolutions/sizes).
In July 2018 Samsung Electronics video and display chief, Han Jong-hee, said that Samsung aims to release a Micro-LED consumer TV next year - The Wall Luxury that will be based on its Wall modular TV. It is likely that these Active LED TVs are in fact the consumer edition of the Wall Micro-LED TV. Earlier this month we reported that Samsung is also developing a consumer 75" Micro-LED TV, based on a different technology (including LEDs made by PlayNitride).
Rtings.com performed extensive burn-in trials for six LG OLEDC7 TVs - and some of these TVs suffered from series burned-in images after only 4,000 hours (but these may have been extreme tests).
The Kopin-made LCDs suffer from a green glow, and the US army will be ready to field-test new OLED microdisplays early next year
Royole demonstrated its latest technologies at IFA 2018 - including flexible and foldable AMOLED panels, a large automotive display and a phone/bracelet device made from a foldable OLED.
Sony's OLED AF9 are now shipping for $3,499 for the 55-inch model and $4,599 for the 65-inch one
Audi officially launched its first electric SUV, the e-tron SUV with 7-inch OLED virtual side mirrors and external cameras instead of the normal mirrors.
US-based supermarket chain Wegmans Food Markets partnered with OLEDWorks to bring OLED lighting installations to select Wegmans stores and work sites.
Sharp is getting ready to launch its latest smartphone which will sport the company's own 6.2-inch 3120x1440 AMOLED display
A high-end smartphone with a 6-inch 2220x1080 Super AMOLED display and a triple-camera setup on the back
Sony's latest flagship smartphone uses a 6-inch FHD P-OLED display (made by LG Display)
A virtual-reality HMD that uses dual Full-HD Sony OLED Microdisplays
An Android Wear OS based smartwatch with a round 1.2-inch 390x390 AMOLED display and a monochrome transparent LCD on top
A hybrid smartwatch that uses a mechanical hand on top of a 360x360 round AMOLED
A superzoom camera with 65X equivalent lens and an XGA OLED viewfinder
The X-T3 is a high-performance mirrorless camera with a 0.5-inch OLED microdisplay (of an unclear resolution).
A high-end smartphone with a 6.21-inch notch-type 1080x2248 Super AMOLED display
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