Competition hotting up
While Samsung and LG Display are into volume production of flexible AMOLED panels it looks like they could be facing competition from China-based panel makers.
Digitimes Research claims that BOE , Kunshan Visionox, Guangzhou New Vision Opto-Electronic are developing such panels and Kunshan Visionox should be ready with volume production in first-quarter 2017.
BOE, Kunshan Visionox and Guangzhou New Vision will focus on 9.5, 4.6- and 5.0-inch flexible AMOLED panels for the smartphone market. The three use PI (polyimide) substrates for flexible AMOLED panels. For TFT backplanes Kunshan Visionox uses LTPS while the other two adopt Oxide TFT.
It does not appear a simple move as the makers have experienced developing such panels economically. China-based Tianma Micro-electronics, China Star Optoelectronics Technology and Truly Opto-electronics have been developing non-flexible AMOLED panels so it looks like competition will be tighter for LG and Samsung next year.
