OLED display race intensifies as Samsung kicks out BOE

Samsung dropped BOE from its OLED display supply chain. The company has diversified the panel suppliers, assigning OLED display supply to China’s Visionox and Tianma, bringing BEO orders to zero this year.

According to TheElec, Samsung will source OLED display from China’s Visionox and Tianma rather than BOE this year. BOE’s fallout is a result of legal disputes, leading Samsung Elec to favor Samsung Display by boycotting BOE.

Key Takeaways:

• Samsung’s smartphone OLED demand for 2024 was estimated at 163.2 million units.
• Samsung Display’s volume is absolute, with 159 million units (97%).
• Next is CSOT with 2.2 million units.
• Visionox and Tianma with 1 million units each.
• There is no volume from BOE.

Flagship Galaxy devices will continue to feature OLED displays supplied by Samsung Display. Chinese vendors will supply panels for Samsung’s low-cost devices, mostly belonging to the Galaxy M series.

BOE and Samsung had a patent dispute in the US and China. The legal battles soured relations, resulting in BOE’s OLED supplied to Samsung decreasing from 1.1 million units in 2022 to 600,000 units in 2023, and there is none this year.

The global mobile OLED shipment forecast for 2024 is 753.2 million units. Samsung Display has the most with 327 million units. Its clients are Samsung Electronics, Apple, Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo, Google, Sony, and others.