Chinese manufacturers have a big advantage in grabbing iPhone OLED orders
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The launch of iPhone X confirmed that OLED has become the mainstream of mobile phone screens. However, in order for all iPhone models to adopt OLED in the future, Apple must first have sufficient supply support. This has given Chinese panel manufacturers, who are good at low-cost mass production, an opportunity.
Samsung controls nearly 90% (89%) of the global small-size OLED screen market, leaving Apple with no choice. Currently, the OLED screen for iPhone X is mainly supplied by Samsung. Although Apple has invested $2.7 billion to cultivate LG Display as its second OLED supplier, both panel manufacturers are from South Korea. The regional risks of the Korean Peninsula still make Apple feel uneasy, and it needs more suppliers to spread the risks.
The Financial Times analysis report pointed out that Taiwanese manufacturers such as AUO and Innolux are not strong enough in high-end panel technology to compete with Samsung and LG Display. In contrast, Chinese manufacturers with strong financial strength and national resources as backing have a better chance of competing with Korean manufacturers, and Chinese manufacturers have also shown a very positive attitude in this regard.
According to reports, China's leading panel manufacturer BOE has recently invested US$6 billion to build a sixth-generation OLED panel factory, which is expected to start production in 2019. By then, its production capacity will surpass Samsung and LG Display, and it may have a chance to win Apple's favor.
As Chinese mobile phone manufacturers' global market share continues to expand, they will mainly meet their supply needs from Chinese AMOLED screen manufacturers.
The above-mentioned research institute pointed out that Chinese screen manufacturers have been developing AMOLED technology and are building production lines. It is expected that by 2020, the total production capacity of Chinese AMOLED screen manufacturers will reach half of the total production capacity of Samsung Display and LG Display.
Currently in the global market, four companies are preparing to compete for the next generation and future AMOLED screen orders for Apple phones, namely Samsung Display, LG Display, Japan Display and Japan Sharp. Among them, Samsung currently has a monopoly advantage and has won an order of 100 million AMOLED screens for Apple phones in 2017.
Compared with leading manufacturers, Chinese AMOLED screen manufacturers mainly need to overcome two technical obstacles: improving screen resolution and using plastic substrate technology. In these two areas, Samsung Display is far ahead of Chinese companies.
Among Chinese manufacturers, Shanghai Everdisplay will reach the level of Samsung Display in 2014 this year. Everdisplay is about three years behind, while other Chinese manufacturers are about four to five years behind.
When producing AMOLED panels, the yield rate of volatile luminescent materials becomes a bottleneck. The higher the screen resolution, the lower the yield rate.
Among Chinese manufacturers, only Everdisplay and Truly Optoelectronics were able to produce full HD AMOLED screens, but BOE has made a breakthrough recently. It is expected that by the end of this year or the middle of next year, Kunshan Guoxian Optoelectronics and Tianma Microelectronics will also be able to produce full HD AMOLED screens. By then, domestic OLED players will step onto the international stage and compete with Taiwanese and Korean manufacturers.
In the second half of 2014, Samsung Display began to use PI (polyimide) materials to produce flexible AMOLED screens. Chinese manufacturers have already launched similar panel products, but mass production is not expected to be achieved until 2018.
Compared with Apple, Chinese mobile phone manufacturers have used OLED screens in smartphones for several years, but on a smaller scale. Compared with LCD screens, OLED screens have better picture quality, wider viewing angles, and are more power-efficient. As the production cost of OLED screens gradually decreases, the outside world believes that OLED will gradually replace the old LCD screens in the fields of smartphones and large-screen TVs.
For Apple, the first OLED phone launched this year will face the problem of insufficient supply. So far, LG, Japan Display and Sharp have not yet achieved large-scale mass production and cannot jointly supply Apple. Therefore, only Samsung has become the supplier of Apple's OLED phone.
Although iPhone sales have declined, Apple is still the most influential company in the global smartphone market. Once Apple abandons LCD screens and adopts OLED screens, it is expected that the global mobile phone industry, including Chinese manufacturers, will quickly switch to OLED, which will aggravate the global OLED screen supply shortage.
According to sources previously quoted by Taiwan Electronic Times, in 2017, as Chinese manufacturers such as Huawei, OPPO, and Vivo continue to increase their mobile phone production, key mobile phone components will be out of stock worldwide, among which OLED screens "will definitely be in short supply."
According to a report by Nikkei, British research company IHS Markit released a forecast report on the 24th, pointing out that the global OLED panel production capacity is expected to increase to 50.1 million square meters in 2022, which will be 4.2 times that of 2017. OLED panels continue to gain popularity, and Apple is expected to start using them in the iPhone X, which will be launched on November 3. In order to seize this growing market, South Korean and Chinese manufacturers have successively launched investment in production.
In terms of usage, in addition to Samsung Display, which supplies OLED panels to Apple, Chinese manufacturers such as BOE and CSOT will also expand their production capacity, driving the production capacity of "RGB-type" OLED panels mainly used in smartphones to increase to 31.9 million square meters in 2022, which will be 3.6 times that of 2017; the production capacity of "white-type" OLED panels used in TVs is estimated to increase to 18.2 million square meters, which will be 6.1 times that of 2017.
IHS pointed out that among OLED panels for smartphones, the price of flat products is falling due to competition with LCD panels. In addition, bendable OLED panels are expected to experience no extreme price collapse because they can be differentiated.
但因为中国大陆本身的OLED厂商在取得了大进步,而他们的手机厂商在全球占领了重要的位置,自主可控的需求必能帮助他们在未来追上甚至超越其他OLED竞争对手,走向世界前列。
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