IHS has recently said that as the demand for flexible AMOLED rises dramatically, display manufacturers are aggressively investing in flexible AMOLED, including the latest foldable and rollable displays. With the growing popularity of the Samsung Galaxy Edge series and the Apple Watch, display manufacturers are expanding their production capacity of flexible AMOLED displays. While comprising just 2% of all AMOLED panel shipments in 2014, the share of flexible AMOLED panels rose to 20% of the total AMOLED display market in 2015, reaching 57 million units.
The unit-shipment share of flexible AMOLED is expected to grow to 40% of total AMOLED panel shipments in 2020. Rigid AMOLED panel shipments, by comparison grew 30% to reach 233 million units in 2015. Production capacity for flexible AMOLED panels is expected to exceed 1.5 million square meters (24 percent of total AMOLED display production capacity area) in 2016.
According to the IHS OLED Technology, Strategy & Market Report, Samsung Display lowered its manufacturing cost for rigid AMOLED panels, to compete with low temperature polysilicon (LTPS) liquid crystal displays (LCDs). Samsung Display’s primacy in the rigid AMOLED market, is now leading other panel makers to skip production of rigid AMOLED displays entirely and proceed directly to flexible AMOLED production.
Jerry Kang, principal analyst of display research for IHS Technology, said, "As the demand for flexible AMOLED rises dramatically, display manufacturers are aggressively investing in flexible AMOLED, including the latest foldable and rollable displays." Jerry added, "In fact, the growth rate for flexible AMOLED panels is expected to be much higher than for rigid AMOLED panels beginning in 2016."
Jerry Kang continued, "Manufacturers feel it’s already too late to compete in the rigid AMOLED market, where Samsung Display is already so far ahead." Jerry finished by saying "Furthermore, a growing number of smartphone manufacturers, including Apple, are looking to thinner and lighter flexible AMOLED displays to differentiate their products, which is leading even more panel makers to rapidly shift their business focus to flexible AMOLED."