OLED Tablets - Introduction and Latest Industry News

Towards the end of 2025 BOE suffered from disruptions at its B11 AMOLED production line, which is where BOE produces smartphone AMOLED displays for Apple's iPhones. The company later resumed production, following what was one of several OLED quality issued the company was facing.

According to reports from Korea, Apple has decided that for all its new devices in 2026, it will rely on AMOLED displays produced in Korea by Samsung Display and LG Display, as it seems it is still not trusting BOE's production capabilities.

BOE held a grand ceremony in Chengdu today, to mark the official launch of its B16 8.6-Gen IT AMOLED fab in Chengdu - which is now starting to mass produce commercial displays. This is an exciting moment for the OLED industry, as now both BOE and Samsung Display are mass producing OLEDs at 8.6-Gen lines.

BOE's first products out of this new line will be 14-inch 2.8K laptop OLED panels. At the ceremony, BOE revealed more then ten customers including Lenovo, Honor, Vivo, Oppo, ZTE, Xiaomi, Transsion, and Nothing.

Towards the end of 2025, we believed that 2026 will be another year of increased AMOLED panel shipments, even without taking into account the two new 8.6-Gen IT OLED Lines that are expected to begin production. But as 2026 started, everyone started to realize that macro constraints are starting to shape OLED panel demand, and the AMOLED market started to contract.

The clearest example is memory. DRAM and NAND prices are both rising sharply, due to AI datacenters demand. This increased the cost of smartphone production, which led to a lower demand - some analysts estimate that smartphone shipments will fall around 10-14% in 2026. The main problem lies in low cost smartphones that already suffer from low margins. For OLED makers, the problem is even worse - as some brands are switching to lower cost LCDs in their budget and mid-range smartphones.

In this article we examine the three new macro constraints that are shaping the OLED industry in 2026, why this matters now more than it did in previous cycles, what we learned from the post-COVID IC shortage, the return of LCDs, which OLED segments are more resilient, and deeper implications for the next chapter in the OLED industry's growth story.

LG Display is showcasing a wide range of OLED displays and prototypes at SID Displayweek 2026. In this article we detail the most interesting demonstrations and technologies.

First up, is LG's 3rd-Gen Tandem OLED, these are AMOLED displays, aimed towards the automotive market. LG says that it has introduced two new technologies into its tandem stack - a deep-blue dopant and optimized hole and electron movement. It isn't clear exactly what LG refers to, but it does say that these new technologies enable tandem OLEDs with improved power consumption (18%), brightness (1,200 nits), lifetime (over 15,000 hours) and color purity and reproduction. 

Market research firm Counterpoint says that following the spike in memory prices, it revised down its forecast for the OLED industry in 2026, as it now sees smartphone OLED panel shipments declining 3% in 2026. We have heard this before from Omdia a couple of months ago.

Following a 3% increase in global OLED panel shipments in 2025, Coiunterpoint says that the market will remain flat in 2026, as automotive and IT OLED shipments will increase and offset the decline lin smartphone OLEDs. 

Last year, we reported that LG Display is looking into adopting Japan Display's eLEAP technology at its OLED TV production lines in Paju, perhaps seeking to produce RGB AMOLED displays for IT applications at these fabs that are currently under utilized.

Today we hear that LG Display is now progressing with this plan, and is checking an investment plan to apply eLEAP into its large-area OLED production lines. 

A few weeks ago we reported that Samsung Display may be delaying the A6 8.6-Gen ramp up, following some technical challenges - and demand concerns. Today it is reported that say that this it not the case - SDC actually managed to achieve yields of over 80%, and is on track to start full mass production by June 2026. 

According to what we know, the first products out of the new line will be laptop AMOLED panels that will go to Apple - that signed an exclusive supply agreement with Samsung Display to produce touch AMOLED displays for its upcoming 2026 MacBook Pro laptops (both 14-inch and 16-inch models). 

BOE's Chairman Chen Yanshun provided some interesting information in a recent investor communication event, providing an update and outlook for the company's OLED business.

BOE updates that it shipped around 150 million AMOLED display in 2025, a growth of 8% over 2024. This is below BOE's original expectations, and the company gives three reasons for the lower shipments in 2025: patent disputes in the AMOLED field, limited coverage of national subsidies (most Chinese phone subsidies cover only budget smartphones), and the need for improvement in internal lean management.

UBI Research says that medium and large OLED display panel revenue will reach $11.5 billion in 2026, and will grow to $20 billion by 2030, a CAGR of 14.8%. These displays are utilized in tablets, monitors, laptops and automotive applications, mostly (this category for UBI does not include TV panels).

UBI says that the main driver for increased sales will be the monitor market, where OLED panels will grab a market share of 26% of the total medium and large OLED market (not the total monitor display market).

Two days ago we reported that Samsung Display has began trial production of laptop AMOLED displays at its A6 site, and has already achieved yields of over 70%, and is close to achieve over 80% yields soon. That report was optimistic, saying that SDC is on track to begin full scale mass production by May 2026.

There are reports from Korea today, that Samsung may be delaying the A6 ramp up, citing some interesting information about technical issues, but also market concerns. We detail it below.