[THE INVESOTR] Shipments of organic light-emitting diode displays for smartphones are expected to almost double from last year’s 250 million units to 450 million units in 2017, market research firm IHS predicted.

Currently, about 97 percent of the market is dominated by Samsung Display, the display-making unit of Samsung Electronics. 

IHS said this year’s shipments could surge 42.7 percent to 366.9 million panels compared to a year ago.

Samsung has extended the OLED adoption for its smartphones ranging from its flagship S series to cheaper budget phones, while its archrival Apple has long been depending on liquid-crystal display.

But more recently Chinese handset makers are increasingly adopting OLED display. Among other things, Apple iPhone is also expected to use OLED screen possibly from next year.

Industry watchers say OLED iPhone would speed up the OLED adoption among other smartphone-makers overall. .

In the meantime, IHS predicted that LCD shipments for smartphones would continue to decrease from this year’s 1.58 billion units to 1.36 billion units in 2020.

By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)