Summary of small and medium-sized LCD/OLED panels in 2021 and outlook for 2022. With the arrival of the end of 2021, Omdia has begun to look back at the past year and predict the situation in 2022. The new crown epidemic has caused some drastic fluctuations in the display panel industry this year.
The following is a review of various topics related to the small and medium size display panel industry. Each topic consists of a summary of 2021 and Omdia's expectations for 2022.
OLED vs. LTPS LCD
2021: Due to new, high-quality 5G products, flexible OLED shipments have increased. They use low-temperature polycrystalline oxide (LTPO) to reduce power consumption. Rigid OLED and LTPS LCD compete in the high-end and mid-range smartphone market. Rigid OLED wins due to its better performance (such as faster speed, better contrast, and lower power consumption).
Outlook for 2022: Flexible OLED will dominate the premium and high-end smartphone market. It will also target the mid-range smartphone market, but reducing production costs will become a challenge. At the same time, rigid OLEDs, which dominate the high-end smartphone market, will target the mobile PC market. Its high performance characteristics make it suitable for games and high-speed video content. LTPS LCD will be commercialized in the mid-range and low-end smartphone markets.
Flexible OLED display panel
2021: The shipment of foldable OLED is expected to increase by more than 10 million pieces. Samsung Display takes the lead in this market. New technologies, such as LTPO, under-screen camera (UPC), COE (color-on-encapsulation) and MLP (micro light-control pattern), are actually being applied in mass production.
Outlook for 2022: Omdia expects smartphone brands to increase their use of flexible OLEDs, mainly because of the demand for foldable OLEDs from Apple's iPhone and Samsung Electronics. At the same time, Oppo, Vivo, and Xiaomi will also expand their purchases of OLEDs. Due to panel characteristics such as fast response time and high contrast of tablets and notebooks, their demand is expected to increase substantially. Panel manufacturers will try to apply RGB tandem stacked OLED in IT applications to obtain better performance. They will also study the feasibility of using 8.5-generation line vertical fine metal mask (FMM) evaporation.
Full screen smart phone display panel
2021: UPC (under panel camera) display panel is released and mass produced. With UPC, a smart phone design with full-active full-screen display can be realized.
Outlook for 2022: UPC design will be commercialized in high-end smartphones from Samsung and Chinese smartphone brands. The focus of attention now is how Apple applies the UPC design to the iPhone 14 to eliminate the grooves in the multi-sensor unit.
Sixth generation line LTPS production line
2021: Due to the demand in the post-epidemic era, the demand for smartphone display panels in 2021 is expected to increase by more than 10 percent year-on-year. With the release of new models of 5G smart phones, the demand for OLEDs has grown, and the total shipments of TFT LCDs, including LTPS and a-Si, have been saturated. In order to increase the demand for OLEDs in the Chinese market, the challenge facing Chinese display panel manufacturers is to advance the mass production technology of flexible OLEDs in order to catch up with leading Korean OLED manufacturers.
Outlook for 2022: Chinese suppliers hope to catch up with South Korean suppliers. Omdia expects that competition will be very fierce, especially in the smartphone display panel market. As LTPS LCD loses market share in smart phone display panels, the sixth-generation line of LTPS LCD factories will be allocated to the production of tablet computers and automotive panels, which are the high-resolution, large-size display panel market.
High resolution panel
2021: The smartphone display resolution has been saturated, reaching FHD plus . Due to the positive impact of home demand, the VR market has taken off, which makes LTPS LCD high-resolution display products reach 800-1100 ppi at 90Hz.
Prospects for 2022: After the blockade policy is relieved, the meta-universe ecosystem that cooperates with virtual reality is gradually established, and the demand for VR panels is gradually aroused. Omdia expects 3D games and visual entertainment to stimulate new demand for VR and AR. LTPS LCD is expected to focus on the automotive market and increase the resolution and aspect ratio from WXGA (1920x720) to avoid competition with OLED in the smartphone market.
Chinese smartphone market
2021: Due to the decline in Huawei's market share, other smart phone manufacturers in mainland China are actively purchasing display panels to adapt to the production of complete machines. However, they are also worried about the shortage of display driver ICs (DDIC). The shortage of semiconductors has affected the production of mobile phones and market demand after the new crown epidemic.
Outlook for 2022: The demand for smartphones is expected to increase after the new crown epidemic. However, due to the shortage of upstream material flow and the tight power supply in China in 2022, the Chinese smartphone market is still full of uncertainty.
Small and medium size application trends
2021: With the alleviation of the lockdown, the demand for car display panels and smart watch display panels resumes. In 2021, the demand for smart watch display panels with functions such as health monitoring will increase. Due to the trend of working from home and the increase in IT access, even after the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a continuing demand for home applications such as tablets, e-readers, and multifunction printers (MFPs).
Outlook for 2022: When the blockade is lifted, applications for outdoor use are expected to regain demand. The demand for smart watches is expected to accelerate again to support walking and tracking monitoring. Although the demand for digital camera (DSC) display panels will increase slightly in 2021, its prospects are still uncertain, because travel abroad will still be restricted in 2022, and the demand for tourists will also be limited.
Car display
2021: Omdia predicts that shipments in 2021 will rebound to 185.3 million pieces, a year-on-year increase of 24.3 percent . Thanks to the incremental display panel factory installation ratio and higher inventory preparation, the recovery of the panel market will be better than the production of light vehicles.
Outlook for 2022: The market is expected to grow by 7.2 percent year-on-year to 198.6 million units. This growth rate will be slightly lower than that of light-duty vehicle production, which is expected to grow by 9-10 percent annually. The lower growth rate is due to inventory adjustments. At the same time, panel technologies such as OLED and LTPS will begin to grow substantially as the automotive market recovers.
