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Almost a Third of Smartphones Will Ship with AMOLED Displays This Year

A new report reveals that AMOLED adoption will raise to 50%

Mar 1, 2017 11:07 GMT  ·  By
Samsung Display
   Samsung Display

A report by Digitimes reveals that AMOLED displays will be featured on approximately 27.6% of smartphones to ship in 2017. The proportion of AMOLED screens could rise to 50% over the next three years.

The report shows that Samsung Display continues to dominate the global supply of AMOLED panels, accounting for most of the 350 million smartphones shipped with AMOLED displays in 2016. Chinese companies Oppo and Vivo had a combined share of over 20%.

Huawei, Xiaomi and other smartphone makers launched phones with AMOLED displays last year, thus showing that more and more companies are adopting this type of screens. Apple is also expected to switch from LCD displays to AMOLED screens this year for its iPhone 8 device which will mark the ten-year anniversary since the first iPhone was launched. Its other two phones, expected to launch later this year, will retain the LCD display.

Tight supply for smartphone vendors

Apple and Samsung are said to grab a large portion of the global supply of AMOLED displays in 2017, thus resulting in a light supply for other smartphone makers. LG Display, Sharp and Japan Display have already stepped up production of AMOLED panels, while other companies have started production as well.

Considering the struggle to meet demand, prices for AMOLED displays could rise in the second half of 2017, while prices for LCD panels might gradually drop. TrendForce has found that prices for key smartphone components will increase this year, thus forcing some Chinese phone makers to change their strategy of offering affordable phones with powerful performances. They might be forced to give up on their plans of launching “affordable premium phones” and find another strategy.

Prices for RAM are said to rise by 10% annually due to undersupply, and the same goes for UFS (universal flash storage) components. This would mean that in the long run, prices for smartphones will gradually increase. With the adoption of AMOLED displays and other components, the price of the upcoming iPhone 8 is said to start at $1,000.