Smartphone OLED Shipment, From 2016’s 300 Million Units to 2019’s 1,000 Million

Flexible OLED Equipped Smartphone Galaxy note 7

Hyunjoo Kang / jjoo@olednet.com

Global smartphone OLED panel shipment is expected to exceed 300 million units for the first time in 2016, and exceed 1,000 million units in 2019.

On 16 August, UBI Research forecast that the global shipment for 4-6 inch OLED panel for smart phone is expected to be 318.8 million units, approximately 27% increase from 2015.

From then on, 2017 is estimated to record 505.3 million units, 902.5 million units in 2018, 1,170.2 million units in 2019, and 1,379 million units in 2020.

UBI Research forecast that rapid growth of flexible OLED for smart phone in particular will lead the total smart phone OLED shipment increase. According to UBI Research’s investigation, rigid type of smart phone OLED shipment is expected to dominate the total smartphone OLED shipment in 2016 with 78%.

However, in 2018, flexible OLED panel is estimated to record 56% and exceed rigid. The market share of flexible is expected to increase to 62.3% in 2019, and 67% in 2020; it is forecast to be the main force within the smartphone OLED market.

IHS, another market research company, also forecast that the smart phone OLED panel shipment will exceed 300 million units for the first time in 2016. IHS estimated the smartphone OLED shipment to be 366.88 million units in 2016 and 663.66 million in 2019, and showed some difference from UBI Research.