In-folding is the mainstream in the late 7-inch to 8-inch range.
Chinese panel makers also expand foldable OLED development
Samsung Display is developing a foldable panel to be supplied to Oppo and Xiaomi in China and Google in the US. Chinese panel makers, such as BOE, are also developing foldable panels, but Samsung Display maintains a monopoly.
According to the industry on the 23rd, it was found that Samsung Display is developing an in-folding foldable organic light-emitting diode (OLED) panel to be supplied to Oppo, Xiaomi, and Google. These products are expected to be released within this year.
Oppo’s foldable panel being developed by Samsung Display is an in-folding clamshell-type product that folds the screen up and down. When unfolded, the internal screen is 7.7 inches, and the external auxiliary screen is 1.5 to 2 inches. Compared to the 6.7-inch internal screen of the clamshell-type Galaxy Z Flip, which Samsung Electronics released last year, the Oppo product is larger.
Oppo unveiled a prototype of a 7.7-inch foldable phone that folds the screen outward last year, but this year chose the in-folding method. Panel makers were also Samsung Display, China BOE, and Visionox last year, but this time only Samsung Display is participating in the development.
The Xiaomi foldable product will also change from out-folding (prototype) last year to in-folding this year. The main screen size has grown from 7.92 inches last year to 8.03 inches this year. The external screen created by choosing the in-folding method is 6.38 inches. Last year, the panel was produced by Visionox, but this year, Samsung Display and CSOT in China will develop it. CSOT delivered a foldable panel with BOE to Motorola’s foldable phone laser in 2019.
The foldable phone that Google is preparing also uses the Samsung Display panel. It was found that Google requested Samsung Display to develop a 7.6-inch foldable OLED panel.
In foldable products, the share of the in-folding method is increasing. Following China’s Royol, Huawei chose the out-folding method for the first foldable phone Mate X in 2019, but this year unveiled the in-folding method Mate X2. All Huawei foldable panels were produced by BOE.
An industry official said, “The out-folding method is easy to implement curvature, but it is weak against external shocks, so finished product manufacturers do not prefer it.” “Out-folding folds less as much as the inner thickness,” he explained. “In-folding is a high technical difficulty because panels meet each other.” He added, “If you compare in-folding to folding paper in half, out-folding is similar to folding paper with a pencil in between.”
As the foldable market is expected to grow, Chinese panel makers are also jumping into foldable development. Chinese panel makers such as BOE, CSOT, and Visionox are participating in the development of foldable panels for domestic smartphone makers.
However, except for Samsung Electronics foldable phones, there are no products that record significant sales. Market research firm Omdia predicts this year’s foldable OLED sales of $2.1 billion (about 2.3 trillion won), a 203% increase from the previous year, but Samsung Display’s share is absolute. It is known that Apple has not yet decided to launch a foldable phone, so long-term growth of the foldable phone market is expected to be observed.
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