TrendForce reports that global shipments of foldable phones reached 15.9 million units in 2023, marking a 25% YoY increase and accounting for approximately 1.4% of the overall smartphone market.
TrendForce’s latest investigations forecast an exciting yet challenging year for the DDIC market in 2024. With prices in 2023 mostly stabilizing or showing a slight decline, the upcoming year is poised for a transformative shift.
TrendForce projects that shipments of smartphone display panels (smartphone panels) will reach approximately 1.85 billion pieces in 2023, reflecting a YoY increase of 8.7%.
TrendForce’s latest insights reveal that by 2023, shipments of foldable smartphones could skyrocket to an impressive 18.3 million units, marking a 43% YoY surge. However, this only captures a slim 1.6% of the year’s total smartphone market.
TrendForce predicts that the shipment quantity for automotive panels will cross the 200 million mark in 2023, reaching an estimated 205 million units—a 5.1% YoY growth.
According to TrendForce "AMOLED Technology and Shipment Tracker" that the continuing global economic downturn continues to exert pressure on the smartphone, with this year’s projected market size falling short of 1.2 billion units.
The prices of large-sized DDIs have been resistant to falling as it’s too difficult for wafer prices to return to their pre-pandemic levels. The ASP of DDIs is expected to remain level throughout 2Q23 or dip slightly by 1–3%.
According to TrendForce’s analysis of the supply chain for display panels, demand slowed dramatically in 2Q22 and thereby caused inventory level to rise sharply for display driver ICs (DDIs) within a short period. However, the market for DDIs is in a notably better state now in 1Q23 following two to three quarters of price decline, reduction in wafer input, and inventory consumption. Moreover, the first quarter is the critical period when DDI suppliers set their wafer input quantities. In order to effectively meet the demand for 2H23, DDI suppliers will need to finish arranging orders with their foundry partners by the end of 1Q23.
The adoption of the OLED display technology among smartphones is on a gradual rise. According to TrendForce’s latest research, the penetration rate of smartphones that feature an OLED panel (regardless of whether the OLED panel is the rigid, flexible, or foldable type) is projected to climb from around 47.7% in 2022 to 50.8% in 2023. Then, by 2026, the penetration will climb above 60%.