Demand Appears To Have Dried Up For Large Commercial OLED Displays – Omdia Research Report
July 25, 2024 by Dave Haynes
Demand for OLED displays used for tablets and laptops has spiked this year, but the use of very large OLEDs as public information displays (aka digital signage) has all but evaporated, according to an analysis from the research firm Omdia.
Overall, Omdia’s latest Large Area Display Market Tracker for 1Q24 says shipments of large-area OLEDs sized above 9-inches are forecast to increase by 124.6% year-on-year (YoY) in 2024. But a look at the chart shows that growth is driven by personal computing devices, with OLED TV sales flat and OLED units categorized as Others/Public Information Displays being way down.
From Omdia:
As a result of the global recession, high-end displays saw demand declining and impacting large-area OLED shipments which decreased by 25.7% YoY in 2023. The only exception was monitor OLEDs which provided the opportunity for panel makers to shift their focus and help reduce the deficits from OLED TV display business thus increasing shipments in 2023.
Commenting on the market changes, Peter Su, Senior Principal Analyst stated: “All large-area OLED applications are expected to see an increase in shipments in 2024 except those in the ‘Others’ category as shown in the diagram. This growth will be driven by mobile PC applications of OLEDs such as Notebook PCs and tablet PCs. In particular, tablet PC OLED shipments are projected to increase by 294.0% YoY in 2024 largely due to new Apple iPad Pro OLED version. OLED makers are also aiming to increase notebook PC OLEDs by 152.6% YoY during same period.
“With the rising demand for AI PCs, that the demand for high-end notebook PC demand is also expected to increase. Additionally, OLED makers planning Gen 8.6 IT OLED fabs are increasing their notebook PC OLED shipment targets this year in preparation for the fab mass production. Monitor OLED are also expected to grow shipments by 139.9% YoY in 2024. Although OLED TV display shipments are forecasted to increase by 34.8% YoY in 2024, this figure is still lower than in 2022. Therefore, panel makers need to ramp up monitor OLED production to maximize their Gen 8.5 OLED fab capacities.”
Samsung Display is projected to hold the largest share of large-area OLED unit shipments at 52.5% in 2024, followed by LG Display at 33.1% and EDO at 10.1%. Korean makers expect to dominate large-area OLED shipments with 85.6% share this year, down from 88.2% in 2023. This decline is attributed to the increasing presence of Chinese panel makers, whose share us anticipated to rise from 11.8% in 2023 to 14.4% in 2024. Chinese panel makers are focusing on tablet and notebook PC OLED shipments as they plan to establish Gen 8.6 IT OLED fabs in the near future.
LG, more than any other display manufacturer, has produced and pushed OLED as a commercial display option for pro AV and digital signage jobs. The screens are indisputably gorgeous, and the super-thin, flexible and transparent possibilities of OLED offer different and interesting twists to visual display projects. BUT … they’re expensive. Costs are multiples of what a same-sized LCD pro display. For example, you can get an LG 65-inch 4K LCD for $2,200. An LG 65-inch OLED is $8,500. Some sellers will have different pricing and the gap might be closer in some cases, but you get the general idea.
There are commercial jobs that might warrant a super-premium OLED display, but the opportunities that offer volume are going to be with LCD, and with time, a lot of that stuff might shift to LED.
One of the key points is that most OLEDs are really only suitable for video applications with constantly changing displays. To achieve lifetimes and brightnesses closer to those seen in LCDs without ‘burn-in’, new technologies such as tandem (basically double layered) OLEDs are needed. They are affordable for small OLEDs in IT and automotive, but would significantly increase the costs for large OLEDs.