OLED Market Growth Faces Challenges

OLED displays are experiencing slower industry growth than originally predicted. 

Though the technology offers many benefits over traditional LCD panels, OLED tech is facing some notable challenges causing delays in its market growth. The two major roadblocks remain high production costs and a lack of development breakthroughs.

According to a new NPD DisplaySearch report, the forecast for 2014 OLED material revenue has been downgraded from $1 billion to $795 million. The report goes on to cite ongoing OLED TV shipment delays as the culprit behind the revised figure. Despite the slow growth and low yield rates, OLED tech remains popular in mobile screens and LG currently has a 55-inch curved and 55-inch flat screen TV model available. Likewise, Samsung released its own 55-inch OLED display last year, but has not announced any new models for the foreseeable future.

"The OLED material industry and related investors are justifiably worried about where the OLED material market is headed in the near future," said Jimmy Kim, senior analyst for display materials and LED for NPD DisplaySearch. "If OLED TV shipments increase, the larger average unit area and lower yield rate will increase the overall consumption of raw materials for OLED TV panel manufacturing."

This slow growth is disappointing news, but some OLED support is still on the way. LG recently announced several upcoming 2014 OLED TV models, and hopefully as the technology continues to develop manufacturers will be able to reduce costs.

Source: Displaysearch via CNET

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