New report provides forecasts of addressable markets for OLED materials

LONDON, ENGLAND: In the last year to 18 months, the opportunities for OLED materials have grown in important ways. OLED displays have been "mainstreamed" with the arrival of mass market cell phones that use OLED technology for their primary displays.

Meanwhile, OLED lighting can already be purchased in the form of "designer" chandeliers and table lamps; with larger segments of the lighting market likely to be penetrated by OLED lighting in the next few years. And, while the first attempts to introduce OLED TVs have stumbled, it seems that next year will see the introduction of OLED TVs on the market with much greater chances of market success than the products that preceded them.

All of these trends mean that the addressable markets for OLED materials are rapidly growing and will continue to do so. This means that pricing for these materials should finally be able to take advantage of real economies of scale. Until now, OLED materials seem to have been stuck in between the high prices that are typical of a research material and much lower ones that are associated with widely used electronic materials.

However, we believe that these welcome trends will be accompanied by new demands on OLED materials makers. For example, AM OLED displays are largely being marketed in the consumer electronics space on image quality and vibrancy of color. This raises the question as to how materials makers can improve their products to help their customers sell more OLED cell phones and TVs. In the OLED lighting space, the focus is on efficiency and reducing total cost of ownership and, here again, it seems that OLED materials suppliers can develop proprietary solutions that will give them long-term competitive advantages.