The global AMOLED panel industry saw an over 10% on-year decline in sales revenue during 2014 largely due to lagging sales from Samsung Display. Despite the decline, Korea makers LG Display and Samsung Display have prospects for the technology in 2015 and will expand accumulative production capacity by 36%, up from the 24% expansion the two makers achieved in 2014, according to Digitimes Research.
In 2015, Samsung is eyeing opportunities in the AMOLED flexible display industry and will have a new 6G A3 line enter mass production in the first half of the year. Additionally, the line will produce a variety of curved and flexible AMOLED panels for used in handsets.
Samsung Display is also shifting its strategy in 2015 by expanding its customer base. In 2014, 87% of the company's sales went to the Samsung Group (primarily Samsung Electronics), but that percentage is expected to drop to 55% in 2016 as Samsung Display aims to supply China vendors and other customers AMOLED panels.
LG Display meanwhile will have its new M2 8G line enter mass production in the first half of 2015, which will focus on production of OLED TV panels as LG Electronics pushes forth OLED TVs in 2015 to compete against other technologies in the high-end TV segment.
Despite efforts from panel makers outside of Korea such as AU Optronics (AUO) to produce AMOLED solutions for applications such as smartwatches, production capacity is limited and therefore Korea makers will remain the top AMOLED panel suppliers in 2015, added Digitimes Research.
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