Flexible Screens Market

Flexible Screens Market Outlook (2022 to 2032)

[235 Pages Report] The global flexible screens market was valued at around US$ 1.9 Billion in 2021. With a projected CAGR of 46.5% for the next ten years, the market is likely to reach a valuation of nearly US$ 189 Billion by the end of 2032.

Future Market Insights’ analysis reveals that over 3/4th of the market, revenue is grossed from flexible AMOLED screens. On the other hand, POLED-based flexible screens will be the most lucrative indicating nearly 45X growth in a decade starting in 2022. While it is no less apparent that smartphones and tablets will be the key procurer of flexible screens, the screens with 6’’ - 20’’ panel sizes will populate a large proportion of the revenue.

Parallel Markets Evolved Into Flexible Screens Resulting In Growth Of Flexible Screens

Rapidly evolving screen technology has been witnessing frequent changes in technology. However, traditional technology is not being obsolete completely. During the years 2000-2010, TFT-LCD technology offered Flat, Slim, and Green screens for end-use products such as LCD TV and LCD laptops.

Between 2012 -2020 OLED technology offered Vivid, Light, and flexible screens for end-use products such as smartphones, tablets, OLED TVs, Unbreakable phones, Wearables, and foldable phones. OLED technology is further distributed to Glass-based OLEDs and Plastic-based OLEDs.

The evolution of these technologies into the flexible screens market has diluted the share of traditional technology to penetrate into advanced technology and the markets impacted by this are LED screens, flexible OLED screens, flexible Screens technology, flexible LED screens, flexible EPD screens, flexible glass screens, and flexible E-ink screens.

Upcoming OLCD and Electronic Paper Display technologies have high growth opportunities, which will significantly impact the flexible screen market during the forecast period.

Sales Analysis Of Flexible Screens From 2019 To 2021 Vs Market Outlook For 2022 To 2032

The global market for flexible screens rising from the infancy stage of its lifecycle expanded at a three-digit CAGR of 142.1% over the last three years (2019-2021). The market growth is projected to saturate with the projected drop in their prices coupled with mass-level manufacturing resulting in benefits of economies of scale.

In 2021, nearly 1.4 Billion units of smartphones were shipped worldwide, of which flexible smartphones accounted for a meager 0.3% share. Flexible screens for smartphones also accounted for nearly the same proportion. In a decade’s time, it is highly likely that this proportion will swell to over 20%.

Currently, there are 11 brands of foldable and bendable smartphones in the market, of which six comes from Samsung’s flagship Galaxy series of smartphones. The other brand owners Huawei and Xiaomi have four and one brand respectively. In this competition of trio, the supply side is significantly heavy and stressed, as the smartphone manufacturers have been striving to procure a large volume of flexible screens.

Other applications of flexible screens including flexible screens for tablets, flexible screens for laptops, flexible screens for personal computers, flexible screens for smartwatches, flexible screens for smart wearables, flexible screens for televisions, and flexible screens for e-readers have either very low or no penetration in the consumer’s sphere owing to their lower added-utility as compared to smartphones.

Millennials have been observed to be the most active buyers of flexible screen-based devices owing to their growing income levels and increasing share of household expenditure on smart technology products. Nevertheless, buyers from other age groups will soon start purchasing them to make the demand more mainstream.

The global flexible screens market is predicted to surge ahead at a CAGR of 46.5% and record sales worth US$ 189.5 Billion by the end of 2032. China, the global electronics manufacturing hub, will continue to be the largest procurer of flexible screens throughout the analysis period accounting for over US$ 182 Billion absolute dollar opportunity in the coming 10-year epoch.

Sudip Saha

Principal Consultant

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How The Buzzword Foldable Is Creating A Demand Swell In Smartphone Sphere?

Manufacturers Vouch for Less Space Consuming Smartphones - Foldable Smartphones

Moor’s law is still relevant and its application can be observed with the continuous miniaturization of electronics. While electronic product manufacturers put their efforts into shrinking the dimension while retaining their utility, the consumers, on the other hand, feel that foldable, bendable, and rollable electronics as trendy which is uplifting their social status. With this trend, foldable smartphones will replace around 1/5th of all smartphones purchased by 2032.

How Technological Transformation Is Taking Flexible Screens From Infancy To Growth Stage Of Product Life Cycle?

The research will continue and Development will follow

Flexible screen manufacturers nowadays are closely working on commercializing OLCD display screens and it is projected that the mass production of OLCD will be initiated by the end of 2022. Flexible panels, including flexible passive transparent TSPs, flexible active backplanes, and flexible light sources, have been studied at the UNIST research center in order to bring flexible devices to reality.

In addition, testing of nano-scale flexible panels was carried out to assess the performance of similar individual materials to those found in flexible panels. A readout IC for the display panel was also investigated in order to achieve consistent curved flexible panel performance.

Finally, the flexible device's ergonomics were investigated in order to determine its impact on human users. This flow of research solely dictates the growing appetite of end-use sectors for flexible screens which are pushing the development.

Low-cost flexible displays poised for growth include electrophoretic displays, electrochromic displays, and electroluminescent displays. Some of the organizations continuing the research and development of flexible displays are Flexible Display Roll to Roll Research Center (FDRC), Flexible Electronics and Display Center, Arizona State University, National Centre for Flexible Electronics, IIT Kanpur, and Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology.

Many technologies have been developed to create flexible displays. Electrophoretic displays (EPD) and OLEDs are most advantageous and contribute to the exponential growth of flexible screen penetration. EPDs were first used as an electronic paper display, thereby creating a flexible material laminated on a rigid thin-film transistor (TFT) active matrix.

Liquid crystal displays (LCD) can be used in flexible form factors theoretically, however, the trend in flexibles is increased deployment of OLEDs, which do not require a backlight as they are self-luminous, and have reduced thickness and faster response times while improving color and contrast.

OLED technology represents a new era of low-energy, transparent and flexible displays and lighting products that are already in production due to their low cost, better applicability, and ease of manufacturing.

How Next-Gen Wearables Are Emerging As Potent End-Use Channels For Flexible Screens?

From Smartphones to smart clothing - Onus Goes to Flexible Screens

Wearables have gained significant attention these days, with new substrates, low power requirements, power scavenging, durability, and novel connectivity. Korean researchers claim to have invented meta-display technology, which could become a prominent factor in increasing the demand for next-gen wearables.

Most stretchable materials (rubber, cloth, or anything else having some elasticity) tend to shrink in one direction when stretched in the other direction. While usually this is not an issue but can be an issue in some applications. However, no one wants to sew a touchscreen display on the sleeves of jackets and move the arm to distort the image on the screen.

Designed to overcome this fundamental difficulty with stretchable displays, metamaterials have been brought into the picture, which are sophisticated materials that are often composed of small elements arranged in repeating patterns that exhibit unique behavior which is not found in natural materials. Metamaterials could thus be the key to the sustained growth of the flexible display market in the coming years.

The idea of intelligent apparel as a category of clothing that has dynamic functions, further to the conventional properties of clothing, has been introduced. The intelligent feature of the clothing is obtained by utilizing either a specifically developed fabric or by integrating a digital device into conventional fabric.

Thus, a sweater that adjusts color under the effect of heat should be regarded as smart clothing, as should a bracelet that monitors the heart rate of an athlete even as he/she is exercising.

Accordingly, three categories for these smart clothing are envisaged as follows:

• Virtual clothing assistants have a ‘memory’ to save data and perform complicated calculations.
• Clothing monitors that record the performance, behavior, or fitness of the person
• Regulative clothing that adjusts positive parameters, together with temperature or ventilation

Smart clothing can be used in manual or automatic modes. The wearer can act on added intelligent functions while automatic function cloths react autonomously to external parameters like light, temperature, and humidity.

The growing prevalence of such types of applications in the apparel industry is the key factor that will generate demand for flexible displays in the future. This is expected to augment the demand for flexible screens in the wearables category.

Country-Wise Insights

How does China continue Being the Nucleus of Global Flexible Display Demand?

The World’s Factory to Retain its Dominance for Flexible Screens Consumption

China accounted for over 97% of the global flexible screens market in 2021, representing the first choice of global small electronics product manufacturers.

The mix of lower wages, availability of technical workforce, fertile business ecosystem, lower compliance, business-friendly taxes and duties, and depressed national currency makes it a lucrative production hotspot for several products, especially electronics. With these statistics, it will be no wonder to expect China as a market with a US$ 182 Billion absolute dollar opportunity between 2022 and 2032.

How is the Demand for Flexible Screens Shaping Up in South Korea?

Flexible Smartphones to Rollable TVs - South Korea revving up to Become Hotspot for Next Electronics

In 2021, South Korea was the second-largest flexible screen consumer after China, with a market value of US$ 51 Million. Currently, it is the only rollable television manufacturer worldwide. Being the headquarters of the electronics giant Samsung, South Korea generates strong demand for flexible screens for the manufacturing of foldable smartphones.

It is highly likely, that South Korea will become a US$ 2.8 Billion flexible screens market forecasted by the end of 2032.

Category-Wise Insights

Why Flexible Screens Market Depends Nearly Solely on Sales of Panel Size 6’’ to 20’’?

Most flexible electronics manufactured currently use flexible screens of display size 6’’ - 20’’

Smartphones and tablets and laptops are the only electronics using flexible screens currently. Considering their size, the requirement for flexible screens with panel sizes 6’’- 20’’ accounts for a revenue share of over 99%.

Other panel sizes which include up to 6’’ and above 20’’ are highly unlikely to gain more than 1% share throughout the analysis period, as they are used to fulfill the demand for flexible screens for smartwatches and wearables, demand for flexible screens for televisions, and demand for flexible screens for e-readers.

While TVs presently are made to order and have a significantly high price tag, e-readers are yet to be commercialized. With the miniaturization of smartphones, most of the features of wearables will be available with smartphones.

Competitive Landscape

At present, flexible screen manufacturers are largely aiming at setting up manufacturing facilities, winning orders, and showcasing technology at exhibitions.

The key companies operating in the flexible screen market include Samsung Display Co. Ltd., BOE Technology Group Co. Ltd., LG Display Co. Ltd., Visionox Technology, Inc., AU Optronics Corp., Tianma Microelectronics Co. Ltd., Shenzhen Royole Technologies Co. Ltd., E Ink Holdings Inc., HannStar Display Corporation, ever display Optronics (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Iljin Display Co. Ltd., Shenzhen RADIANT Technology Co. Ltd., and Osel Technology Pvt. Ltd.

Some of the recent developments by key providers of flexible screens are as follows:

• In April 2022, BOE announced that it will expand production lines in Western China. The production line would be fully functional by the end of 2022. The third production line in central China is for testing production. Companies nearly shipped 60 million OLED panels which are making it 2nd largest OLED manufacturer and securing 17% of the global market share. The company planned to ship 100 million OLED panel units by the end of 2022.
• In May 2021, Samsung Display unveiled its latest OLED innovations at the SID Display Week trade show. It showed the way forward with its innovative offerings, such as Slidable, S-Foldable, and under-panel cameras. Samsung Display unveiled its next-generation OLED technologies to the world’s biggest exhibit of displays, affirming its leadership within the industry. It opened a virtual exhibition booth to introduce its displays to potential customers.
• In Jan 2021, CES 2021 showcased new products from TCL CSOT, which include a 17-inch OLED scroll print display that is 0.18 millimeters thin and a 6.7-inch AMOLED rollable display. TCL CSOT is a parent company of TCL Technology and a company that specializes in next-generation display technology. The 17-inch printed OLED scroll display for flexible, free-form displays is only 0.18 millimeters thin, a significant breakthrough for this kind of technology. It is highly scrollable and portable, and easily fits anywhere like a scrolling picture.

Similarly, recent developments related to companies manufacturing Flexible Screens have been tracked by the team at Future Market Insights, which is available in the full report.

Flexible Screens Industry Report Scope

Key Segments Covered In Flexible Screens Industry Survey

By Functionality:

• Bendable and Foldable Display
• Rollable Display

By Technology:

• OLED/ FOLED
• AMOLED
• POLED
• Electronic Paper Display (EPD)

By Panel Size:

• Up to 6’’
• 6’’ - 20’’
• Above 20’’

By Application:

• Smartphones & Tablets
• Laptops
• Smartwatches & Wearables
• Television
• E-Readers

By Region:

• China
• World Exc. China