Mobile phones have evolved into the focal point of electronics innovation.
Indeed, the handset industry sits on the bleeding edge of novelty, and players now introduce new phone technologies at a break-neck pace. Last year it was integrated digital cameras, this year it’s music players. Further, the phone market enjoys massive worldwide volumes-industry is on track to sell around 735 million phones this year-which creates a major opportunity for vendors pushing their wares.
Thus, phone makers are inundated with innovations in chips, application engines, casings, operating systems, input methods, vibration motors and virtually every other phone component. And one of the major areas of current interest is phone displays.
As handsets mature into mini computers and color screens become standard, the importance of a suitable display is paramount. Phone screens must be hardy enough for everyday use while at the same time lightweight and easy on the battery.
Handset makers today have embraced Liquid Crystal Displays for mobile phones. LCD displays feature a fluorescent backlight that shines through a liquid crystal material to create an image. There are several variations on LCD displays for use in mobile phones, the most popular of which is the TFT-LCD. According to research and consulting firm iSuppli Corp., 55 percent of phones today use TFT-LCD displays.
However, the phone industry has shown a notable amount of interest in the potential for OLED displays, a new technology that could find major favor in the mobile-phone market. Organic Light-Emitting Diode displays are made up of just that-organic material that lights up when hit with an electric current. OLED displays are easy to pick out from the crowd-they are even more sharp and clear than TFT-LCD displays. Further, users can see OLED screens from any angle, rather than just straight on like most backlit mobile-phone screens.
“OLEDs are quiet well suited for mobile phones,” said Kimberly Allen, director of display technology and strategy for iSuppli. The firm closely tracks a variety manufacturing industries, including those for mobile phones.
iSuppli estimates the OLED market totaled $408 million last year on shipments of 31 million units. The firm forecasts those numbers will almost double this year to $615 million on unit shipments of 60 million. Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. dominated the OLED manufacturing market last year with a 44-percent market share. The company’s OLED mobile phones largely drove its position. Other OLED display providers include RiTdisplay with 22 percent of the market and Pioneer with 20 percent.
Although MP3 players, personal digital assistants, digital cameras and other electronics use OLED displays, mobile phones comprise the vast majority of OLED shipments. Indeed, iSuppli estimates phones accounted for almost 90 percent of the OLED market last year. Samsung, LG Electronics Co. Ltd., Motorola Inc., Kyocera Wireless Corp. and Fujitsu are the primary proponents of OLED mobile-phone displays. To date, OLED technology is primarily used for external phone displays, although a few manufacturers have experimented with main displays using OLED technology.
Although OLED screens carry notable benefits, there are several key drawbacks. iSuppli’s Allen said the expensive technology suffers from an uncertain future, so manufacturers have so far shied away from developing cost-effective OLED manufacturing processes. OLED displays also are difficult to see in direct sunshine. Finally, OLED screens have shorter overall lifespans than LCD displays-they begin to fade after 5,000 to 10,000 hours of use.
Nonetheless, such display technology could enjoy a bright future in wireless (pun intended).
“If OLED is cheap enough, it will be taken up by the whole (mobile-phone) market,” Allen said.
iSuppli estimates that the number of OLED mobile phones will grow over the years, but they will continue to account for a relatively small percentage of the overall phone market. The firm predicts around 80 percent of phones in 2008 will feature TFT-LCD displays.
OLED displays are not the only alternative to LCDs, however. E-Ink, SiPix, Ntera, iFire Technologies and Nemoptic offer various screen technologies, and Qualcomm Inc. last month formed its new MEMS Technologies Inc. subsidiary to promote its new iMoD display technology. Qualcomm scored the technology through its acquisition of Iridigm Display Corp. last year.
