Sept 12th, 2017, By Jennifer Colegrove Ph.D., CEO and Principal Analyst at Touch Display Research Inc.
On September 12, 2017, Apple announced the highly anticipated new iPhones: iPhone X, iPhone 8, and iPhone 8 plus. The iPhone X is the most expensive one among all three, since it uses a 5.8-inch flexible AMOLED display, while the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 plus use the main stream LCD.
Apple likes the benefits of flexible AMOLED displays: thinness, light weight, potentially low power, and curved form factor for almost edge-less design.
Figure 1: Apple announced iPhone X
Photo credit: MacRumor
As we forecasted about 2 years ago, in the “Touch and Emerging Display December 2015 report”, also in the CNBC article by Anita Balakrishnan which quoted Touch Display Research, “Touch Display Research forecasted Apple will adopt AMOLED for iPhone in 2017/2018 time frame. The current global AMOLED capacity is not enough to support Apple iPhone. That’s why we estimate the adoption to occur in the 2017/2018 time frame. Touch Display Research believes the investment on OLED fab-capacity-expansion from LG and Samsung will soon materialize.”
Now our forecast became reality. Sorry about tooting our own horn, but these are the facts. We are good at forecast.
Figure 2. Touch Display Research accurately forecast Apple iPhone to adopt AMOLED 2 years ago
Source: Touch Display Research Inc.
We also accurately forecasted 4K OLED TV available time, 2 years ahead. On Jan 25, 2013 press release, we announced that “Touch Display Research forecast Ultra HD (4K) resolution AMOLED TV will be on the market by 2015”. “Although AMOLED with FHD resolution is available currently, 4K is considered the high end for TV resolution, even though 4K content is still limited,” said Dr. Jennifer Colegrove, President and analyst at Touch Display Research. “56-inch 4K resolution is just 79 ppi (pixel per inch), which is easily achievable. The challenges are how to increase yield, have good uniformity, have long lifetime, and reduce the manufacturing cost.”
LG’s 65” 4K OLED TV became commercially available in Q1 2015, our forecast becomes reality in 2 years.
Figure 3. Touch Display Research accurately forecasted 4K OLED TV available time 2 years ahead
Source: Touch Display Research
Touch Display Research has a good reputation of accurate forecast.
In the “Touch and Emerging Display report”, June 2013 issue, page 45, Touch Display Research forecasted “Apple will adopt AMOLED within 18 months”.
With the Apple Watch announced in Sept 2014 (available since April 2015), our forecast becomes reality in 18 months.
Figure 4. Touch Display Research accurately forecast Apple to adopt AMOLED 18 month ahead
Source: Touch Display Research
More analysis on OLED display, full-screen phone, touch screens and voice recognition can be found in the Touch and Emerging Display monthly report.
Thanks for reading.
Dr. Jennifer Colegrove and team
About Touch Display Research Inc.
Touch Display Research, Inc. (www.TouchDisplayResearch.com) is an independent technology market research and consulting firm specializing in touch screen and emerging display technologies such as OLED displays, OLED lighting, flexible displays, e-paper displays, ITO-replacement, Active pen, 3D displays, near-eye displays, pocket projectors, quantum dots, gesture controls, voice controls, and eye controls. Touch Display Research provides standard reports, consulting projects, and due diligence for touch suppliers, display manufacturers, consumer electronics ODMs/OEMs, material suppliers, investor companies, venture capitalists, and companies who are merging or acquiring companies in the touch screen, display, and materials industry. We are member of FlexTech Alliance, SEMI and SID.