First Foldable AMOLED Smartphone Displays to Debut This Year, Says IHS

IHS Markit expects the first foldable active-matrix OLED smartphone displays to “hit the market this year,” said Jerry Kang, senior principal analyst, in a research note Tuesday. Foldable AMOLED displays will be only a miniscule portion of flexible AMOLED shipments in 2018, rising to 6 percent in 2021, said Kang. Most suppliers of flexible OLED panels “are planning to put foldable AMOLED into mass production in a few years,” he said. Samsung Display, which demonstrated single- and dual-foldable AMOLED displays for the past five years, is expected to mass-produce its first foldable AMOLED displays for Samsung smartphones in 2018, he said. Another panel supplier, BOE, has developed a prototype of a 7.6-inch foldable AMOLED display with a 2048x1536 resolution and a 5-millimeter bending radius, “which reliably bends 100,000 times without breaking,” he said. “BOE is looking to supply this foldable AMOLED display to Huawei this year.” Smartphone brands plan to use the new foldable displays mainly in larger-sized premium devices, said Kang. Their “transformable” displays will “combine the usability of smartphones and tablets,” he said. The first smartphones with foldable displays will likely command steep prices that “could be a barrier to adoption, however,” he said.