Flexible AMOLED Smartphone Displays Finding Favor, IHS Report Says

As smartphones mature and market growth slows, display manufacturers “are looking to new in-cell and on-cell touch-screen solutions that offer consumers thinner and brighter displays, while shortening the supply chain for smartphone manufacturers,” IHS said in a Thursday report. As panel makers promote these new solutions and offer aggressive pricing, in-cell and on-cell touch solutions are expected to comprise half of all smartphone displays shipped in 2017, IHS said. With the advent of active-matrix OLED displays used in smartphones, “new touch solutions are emerging that boast greater flexibility, lighter weight and other feature improvements,” it said. Emerging touch solutions for flexible displays are expected to grow by more than half in 2016 over last year, “which will bolster revenue levels,” it said. Since Samsung released its Galaxy S6 Edge last year, flexible smartphone displays “have grabbed consumer and industry attention,” IHS said. “Flexible AMOLED displays offer many more features than traditional rigid AMOLED and LCD displays, which is an attractive proposition for device makers and consumers.”