DisplaySearch announces 2006 OLED display shipments up

The worldwide leader in display market research and consulting has announced that its 2006 OLED display shipments were up, but revenues were $475 million, down 3%, as the ASP dropped 24% year-on-year. OLED displays compete with LCDs in small/medium applications, such as mobile phone main displays and sub-displays, MP3s, and automotive consoles.

The top six suppliers (Samsung SDI, LGE, RiTdisplay, Pioneer, Univision, TDK) had a market share of 92.4% as the industry continued to consolidate, with Samsung coming in top of the revenues. In Q4’06, OLED shipments were $22.2 million and revenues hit $145.3 million.

PMOLEDs continue to dominate the market with a revenue share of more than 93%. There are now 13 small molecule and two P-OLED producers with small molecule having a 99% revenue share.

In Q4’06, RiTdisplay regained the top position in both units and revenue with 5.4 million displays and $26.5 million in revenue. Pioneer was fifth in shipments and second in revenue, while Samsung SDI was second in shipments and third in revenue for the quarter.LGE was third in shipments and fourth in revenue, and Univision was fourth in units and fifth in revenue.

Sub-displays and MP3 player displays continue to account for about 90% of shipments at 12.3 million and 7.9 million, respectively. Of the remaining applications, main displays and industrial applications showed strong growth, but volume remained low.

In other news included in the report:

§         Samsung SDI and Sony began production of AMOLEDs in Q107.

§         Teco (Taiwan), which is moving their fab from Taiwan to China, continued to use its Taiwan fab, shipping P3 displays to iRiver.

§         Revenues are forecast to grow to over $142.5 million in Q1’07, due in large part to the introduction of AMOLEDs for mobile phone main displays by Samsung SDI.

Courtesy of Leds Magazine (www.ledsmagazine.com)