The market for glass-based AMOLED displays market is expected to reach USD $23bn by 2022. In an effort to meet market conditions, both Samsung and LG Display are now ramping up production capacity of plastic-based OLED displays. As a result, IDTechEx forecasts the market will nearly double from $1.5bn in 2015 to $2.9bn in 2016.
The next evolution is plastic and flexible displays. Based on this scenario, the market for plastic and flexible AMOLED displays will rise to $16bn by 2020. The rise of plastic and flexible displays will be accompanied by a shift from glass substrates to plastic substrates such as polyimide.
The market for plastic-based OLED displays is not reaching its full potential because demand for the Samsung S6 Edge was higher than anticipated but there was not enough supply of the curved plastic displays.
Compared to conventional glass-based displays, plastic OLED panels are much thinner and lighter. The two main applications will be smart phones and wearable devices such as smart watches. However, as the technology matures, it will be possible to use those displays in other types of devices.
