Still in 'Early Innings’ of Smartphone’s Transition to OLED, Says Applied Materials

Production-equipment supplier Applied Materials sees OLED displays as a “big driver” of future company growth, CEO Gary Dickerson said on a Thursday earnings call. In OLED, the company sees its “available market opportunity” as more than three times larger than for “traditional LCD,” Dickerson said. “OLED is the key for high-resolution, low-powered screens with faster refresh rates,” he said. “We expect it to become the standard for virtual-reality-capable phones and headsets.” Applied Materials is in “the initial phase of OLED investments, and this opportunity is layered on top of solid demand for our leadership in display products for TV and mobile,” he said. Dickerson thinks “we’re still in the early innings” of the smartphone’s transition to OLED displays, he said in Q&A. As evidence that OLED developments are still in the early stages, the orders that Applied Materials has been “booking” are for products that won’t “ship through” until perhaps early 2018, Chief Financial Officer Bob Halliday said on the call. “So this OLED transition is going to go on for a while and we have enriched the opportunity for us by developing new products there.”