Samsung leads organic display market

El Segundo (CA) - Samsungs strong presence in the mobile phone business pushed to the number-one rank in the global OLED panel market. The worldwide organic display market grew 63 percent to $408 million in 2004, according to a report from market research firm iSuppli.

Samsung is on a roll, not just in the semiconductor and LCD market, but now also in the segment of Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED) displays. The Korean company shipped and sold 44 percent of all OLEDs in 2004, totaling 13.7 million units. RiTdisplay follows in second place with shipments of 7.7 million ; Pioneer is third with 6.4 million displays. The whole market reported a production of 31.3 million units for 2004.

iSuppli expects the OLED market to expand further in 2005, reaching a volume of $615 million in 2005 and $2.9 billion by 2011. Unit sales are estimated to reach 60 million in 2005 and 341 million by 2011. The research firm believes Samsung will hold its dominance but lose market share. For 2005, Samsung is forecasted to reach 39.8 percent, RiTdisplay 24.2 percent and Pioneer 21.9 percent.

In 2004, 89 percent of OLED panel market revenue was derived from sales to the mobile-phone market, according to iSuppli. OLEDs now are being utilized as the main display of phones, as opposed to being purely a secondary display, as has been the case up until recently. Mobile phones also are increasingly using color OLED panels, rather than monochrome.