How COVID-19 Affected Key Display Markets and Panel Suppliers How Russia/Ukraine, China Shutdowns, Higher Energy Prices, Rising Inflation and Rising Interest Rates Will Impact the Display Market How Display Technologies and Markets Are Evolving Display Market Outlook Of course, COVID-19 caused significant change to the display market, mostly for the better as it pulled in demand for IT markets due to work from home and learn from home. It also led to sharp price increases and record 2021 profits for panel makers which resulted in increased capacity investments. Higher capacity and reduced demand are now significantly pressuring prices.
The display industry must also manage new disruptions to both supply and demand in 2022 including the Russia/Ukraine crisis, COVID-19 shutdowns in major cities in China, significantly higher energy prices, rising inflation and rising interest rates. DSCC's latest forecasts will reflect these issues.
Display technologies and markets are rapidly evolving as OLED vs. MiniLED LCD competition heats up. We are likely going to see significant changes to the competitiveness of OLEDs as a result of tandem OLED stacks, the incorporation of phosphorescent blue OLED emitters, G8.5 oxide backplane lines for IT applications, scaling fine metal mask vacuum thermal evaporation (FMM VTE) equipment to G8.5 and more. These advances should significantly boost display brightness and lifetimes while lowering cost. MiniLED backlight costs are also expected to fall rapidly on increased LED efficiency, improved optics, higher volumes, higher yields and more. Power and thickness are also expected to decline. We are also seeing significant improvements in LCD brightness, response times, refresh rates, contrast, flicker, cost reduction with improved color performance. Also under discussion is whether these improvements in LCDs and OLEDs are likely to impact the development and commercialization of microLEDs.
Given the evolution of these technologies, I will share DSCC’s view on the display market outlook with the latest forecasts for revenues and units by application, display technology, area, panel costs, Korea vs. China competition and more.