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Dec 29
Display industry reshaped in 2025: Korean players quit LCD, Taiwan commercializes microLED
In 2025, the global display industry will undergo a major shift as South Korea exits LCD production and strengthens its OLED patent lead. China gains dominance over LCD capacity and market share, while Taiwanese companies advance with microLED, e-paper, and new business models. This marks a move from "capacity scale wars" to "technology value battles."
BOE Technology Group (BOE) is poised to retain its position as the world leader in TV panel shipments in 2026, with market projections showing stable volumes after a significant increase in 2025. Industry sources note that while BOE strengthens its foothold, other major panel makers face a complex landscape shaped by supply chain dynamics and cost pressures.
With the shift from black-and-white to color boosting pull-in demand, ESG, and AI, epaper terminals are thriving. Both E Ink Holdings, the leading global epaper materials supplier, and Netronix, the world's largest ereader ODM, have seen clear growth in 2025 and is expected to continue into 2026.
BOE announced on December 30 that its first 8.6G AMOLED production line in Chengdu, China, has begun early production, five months ahead of the original schedule, shifting from construction to operation and mass production preparation, with full production expected to start in 2026.
Despite support from major international sports events, the global display panel industry faces a cautious outlook in 2026, with shipment growth no longer assured. Market uncertainty among brand owners, coupled with rising upstream material costs, is eroding confidence and creating a subdued mood across the supply chain.
Display maker INT-Tech has developed a groundbreaking micro-OLED microdisplay with brightness exceeding 100,000 nits, following up on the 60,000-nit display unveiled earlier in 2025. The company aims to use its native RGB self-emissive technology in XR devices, which will enable products featuring 10 times the brightness of current 10,000-nit OLED microdisplays.
Taiwan's display solutions provider Winstar Display anticipates at least 10% order growth in 2026, driven by applications across up to 173 industries. While US tariff policies and cautious customer sentiment created market uncertainty in the first half of 2025, demand began a steady recovery in the second half of the year, giving the company confidence in its sustained growth trajectory.
China hosts the world's largest display panel capacity, pulling upstream suppliers into an increasingly concentrated ecosystem. In polarizers, a string of acquisitions has pushed China to the top globally, with Shanjin Optoelectronics and Hong Kong Heng Mei Group forming a clear duopoly.

Apple is widely expected to mark the 20th anniversary of the iPhone in 2027 with a redesigned model, and South Korea's two dominant display makers—LG Display (LGD) and Samsung Display (SDC)—are already positioning themselves for the project. But industry watchers in South Korea say the two companies are doing so with noticeably different levels of commitment.

InnoCare Optoelectronics held an investor conference on December 16, 2025, where company chairman James Yang pointed out that while the global medical device market grows annually by about 5–8%, InnoCare maintains a double-digit growth rate, outperforming the overall market. The company expects to sustain stable growth through 2026.
South Korean IC design house Sapien Semiconductor is emerging as a disruptor in the global smart glasses supply chain, after reports that it will supply display backplanes for Meta's next-generation augmented reality (AR) glasses, a development that could loosen China's long-standing grip on key micro-display components.
Wah Hong Industrial, a leading Taiwanese optical film and advanced materials maker, remains focused on product upgrades and structural adjustments to enhance overall competitiveness, despite tariff-related uncertainties and conservative demand in 2025, according to the company's president, Chih-Ming Lin.