OLED technology and materials supplier Universal Display sharply downgraded its fiscal-year revenue target Thursday after incurring a 22 percent Q1 sales decline it blamed partly on the “short-term slowdown” in the “premium” OLED smartphone market. The slowdown, which Universal expects will last through Q2, “is impairing our customers’ production plans, which in turn, we believe, is impacting our materials business,” said CEO Steve Abramson on a Thursday earnings call. In Q1, Universal's revenue from OLED materials sales fell 46 percent -- “faster and to a greater magnitude than we expected,” said Abramson. The declines prompted Universal to lower its fiscal-year revenue target to a range of $280 million to $310 million, from $350 million to $380 million in its February forecast. Nevertheless, Universal shares closed 12.4 percent higher Friday at $102.20. From the “standpoint” of OLED materials sales, “we believe Q1 represents the bottom for the year,” and the “long-term OLED market fundamentals remain robust,” said Abramson. “OLED mobile panel makers are improving yields and costs, which are expected to further increase OLED's competitiveness,” he said. OLED TVs “are continuing to garner interest from a number of OEMs,” and are “gaining market share” in the premium TV market, while R&D activity in foldable OLED products “is accelerating,” he said. Over the past decade, OLEDs “have penetrated only a little more than 10 percent of the consumer electronics display market,” he said. “This we believe is just the beginning of the technology's promising potential.”

The Media Bureau granted permanent waivers of FCC user interface accessibility rules for rear entertainment systems in Honda Acura MDXs built for the model years 2017 through 2020, said an order Monday. The bureau last year granted Honda temporary waiver that was to expire in August (see 1710200021), but the company said last July it would be unable to meet that deadline because of technical and bureaucratic complications in giving existing MDX entertainment systems the capability for audio input. “The current Acura MDX rear entertainment system hardware does not have the required speed, memory, and human machine interface to allow for audio feedback and, thus, the hardware would have to be redesigned entirely,” the order said. An investigation by the bureau determined the automaker wouldn’t be able to achieve that redesign until 2020 at a cost of over $11 million, and in that same year, the current generation of MDX vehicles will be replaced with the next version, which is already slated to feature a compliant entertainment system, the order said. “Honda’s waiver is in the public interest because the alternative would be the removal of rear entertainment systems from current generation Acura MDX vehicles when the current waiver expires, which would be detrimental to consumers.”

Shipments by area of active-matrix OLED panels will more than quadruple to 22.4 million square meters by 2024, from 5.0 million square meters in 2017, said IHS Markit in a Monday report. AMOLED TV panels were 32 percent of the total AMOLED panel shipments in 2017 compared with 21 percent in 2016, it said: “Demand growth in AMOLED TV panels has accelerated since 2016 due to the increasing demand for wide color gamut TV. Most TV brands have been promoting AMOLED TV as their super premium product, which has differentiated optical performance from LCD TV.” While 10 global TV brands shipped OLED TVs in 2017, 15 are planning to launch them in 2018, said IHS: “TV brands are trying to expand share of OLED TVs in their portfolio to rebound their total TV revenues.”

The FCC Enforcement Bureau settled with two digital billboard companies. Boyce Industries agreed to pay a $39,500 civil penalty for marketing LED signs “used in digital billboards and other commercial and industrial applications, without the required equipment authorization, labeling, and user manual disclosures in violation of the Commission’s rules,” said a Friday order. Media Resources agreed to pay $19,500 for the same kinds of violations. Both companies agreed to acknowledge they violated rules and will implement compliance plans. Neither company commented.

Demand for display panels using oxide backplane technology doubled in 2017 in terms of area from 2016, and is forecast to grow another 30 percent this year, said IHS Markit Wednesday. Oxide backplane technology offers higher resolution and lower power consumption, said IHS. With Apple’s increasing adoption of oxide LCD panels for its tablet and notebook products in 2017, demand surged 98 percent last year from 2016, it said. Area demand for OLED TV panels using the oxide backplane technology also increased by 106 percent during the same period, it said: “Demand for oxide panels will continue to grow in 2018 as demand particularly for OLED TV, with 55 inch or larger screens, increases.”

The growth rate in shipments of active-matrix OLED panels for smartphones will be “much slower” than previously expected, said IHS Markit in a Monday report. With the help of the iPhone X, shipments of film-based, flexible AMOLED panels for smartphones more than tripled in 2017 to 125 million units, from 40 million in 2016, and panels were expected to see continued strong growth in 2018, said IHS: “However, sales of the iPhone X have not met market expectations, mainly because of the $1,000-plus price tag.” Weaker-than-expected demand for the iPhone X “has made smartphone brands revisit their AMOLED panel purchasing plans,” said IHS. Shipments of flexible AMOLED panels for smartphones are now expected to reach 167 million units in 2018, up 34 percent from 2017, “much slower than the expected almost double growth,” said IHS.

The FCC Enforcement Bureau signed a consent decree ending its investigation of whether Anthem Displays marketed LED signs used in digital billboards without equipment authorization, labeling, and disclosures. The rules are intended to ensure that RF devices sold in the U.S. don’t interfere with authorized communications “thereby maintaining network integrity and security and protecting consumers,” the bureau said Friday. “To settle this matter, Anthem admits that it marketed LED signs without the required equipment authorization, labeling, and user manual disclosures, will implement a compliance plan, and will pay an $18,000 civil penalty.” Anthem didn’t comment.

Reduced OLED “fab utilization” at Samsung Display and “related fab delays,” including those attributable to production cutbacks on the iPhone X (see 1802200030), prompted Display Supply Chain Consultants to scale back its forecast on OLED panel production for 2018 and beyond, blogged the research firm Monday. DSCC now expects global OLED production revenue to rise at a 23 percent compound annual growth rate the next four years, reaching $64.3 billion in 2022. Its previous forecast had OLED production revenue rising at a 27 percent CAGR to $79.6 billion in 2022. “It is still a rapidly growing market as most consumers prefer OLEDs and OLED capacity is still growing rapidly,” said DSCC. “It is just growing slower than previously expected.” Smartphones are expected to remain the dominant market for OLED displays, with about 91 percent of units shipped yearly. On an area basis, however, smartphones are expected to fall to a 50 percent share in 2022 from 64 percent in 2017, with TVs rising to 42 percent of the OLED display area produced in 2022 from 33 percent in 2017, it said. DSCC’s latest OLED smartphone panel forecast shows 543 million units being shipped in 2018, compared with its previous forecast of 622 million panels. Though a 13 percent downgrade from the previous forecast, that would still be a 24 percent increase year on year, it said.

After two years of “unprecedented capacity expansion,” South Korean panel makers in 2018 will “essentially halt” new active-matrix OLED panel factory construction for smartphones, but their Chinese rivals are “continuing to build new factories as fast as they can,” said IHS in a Monday report. As the smartphone market matures, there’s growing “concern” that smartphone sales “may not continue to increase at rates as high as previously hoped for,” it said. One reason is that with display and smartphone performance specifications “already excellent,” the phone replacement cycle is longer, it said. There also are worries that adoption of high-end flexible AMOLED panels “in a wider range of models is being restricted by high prices” that are twice those of comparably featured LCD panels, it said. However, Chinese panel makers “are still pushing ahead with their own aggressive new AMOLED factory plans, at least for now,” said IHS. Chinese makers “are not immune to challenges in the smartphone and flexible AMOLED market, and in most cases, they have not yet proven their ability to manufacture premium flexible AMOLED panels at high volume,” it said. But with strong financial backing from local governments, “most projects are still moving forward as planned, and will likely continue until credit begins to tighten,” it said.

Kyocera bowed a line of high-resolution LCD panels for automotive head-up displays Wednesday. The panels provide light transmittance up to 8.5 percent and typical contrast ratios of up to 1700:1, said the company. The panels’ low temperature polysilicon technology delivers density of about 300 pixel per inch, an 85-degree viewing angle with no color shift and can operate in a -40 C to +105 C temperature range, it said.