OLED screens are all the rage nowadays. You may preen over your shiny OLED screen, but the industry is lagging behind in its production. The entire 'problem' started with the launch of Google Nexus which adopted this state of the art display and then a slew of smartphones decide to follow suit.
According to industry reports, the demand for OLED is likely to reach 184.5 million units by 2014. But seems like we don't have to wait till 2014 for the catastrophe to happen as the display system is already in short supply and is now threatening to cripple the manufacturing process of various phones equipped with this display, especially Google Nexus One. Samsung happens to be one of the most prominent manufacturers of OLED. Now, that the Korean tech giant is pursuing its own OLED equipped Galaxy S Series, the supply side for the display is looking to get even worse. The other major manufacture LG is also designing similar plans.
However, OLED's popularity is not all about vanity. The display system eliminates the need of using backlight, which translates into lower power consumption and therefore extra battery life. Apart from this, OLED screen is also considerably thinner than traditional LCD screen. It also allows for better fast motion display. In order to fix the supply problem, Samsung Mobile Display (SMD) unit is looking to infuse additional $2.2 billion by 2012 for ramping up the production of the screen. New players such as TPO Display Corp. and AU Optronics are also planning to enter the field.
The short supply may push many phone manufacturers to review their plans of using OLED for their new gadgets. However, since the smartphone segment is getting ultra competitive and crowded, they are more likely to push manufacturers to produce more OLEDs than to take a step backward and use LCDs. Whatever happens, I am just thankful that iPhone 4 does not use OLED.
Via Digital Trends and Gadget Venue