The ToyBox

Ricardo Bilton & Gloria Sin
Home / News & Blogs / The ToyBox

OLED shortage could be problematic for Android smartphone industry

By | July 8, 2010, 3:17am PDT

Summary: The AMOLED display shortage has been growing in awareness lately, especially with delays plaguing certain smartphones. But according to iSuppli, this issue is only going to get worse for those in the Android smartphone business.

The AMOLED display shortage has been growing in awareness lately, especially with delays plaguing certain smartphones. But according to the research firm iSuppli, this issue is only going to get worse for those in the Android smartphone business.

Small-sized AMOLEDs have grown popular with Android-based smartphone manufacturers because the screens are thinner, known to perform better than AMLCDs (the ones used on the iPhone), and require less battery power since they aren’t backlit.

Unfortunately, OLED panels (especially Super AMOLED) have become a favorite among the likes of Samsung and HTC so fast that more cell phones are being designed with these screens quicker than the displays can actually be produced.

iSuppli cites that 20.4 million units were made with small AMOLEDs in 2009, but that number is expected to escalate to a whopping 184.5 million units by 2014. Only Samsung and LG are actually producing these presently, with a few more international companies investing and/or jumping into the AMOLED manufacturing business within the next few years.

If the demand for mobile devices designed with AMOLEDs surpasses that of the actual supply, we could be looking at serious wait times for many more smartphones down the line.

[Graph via iSuppli]

Related coverage on ZDNet:

Kick off your day with ZDNet's daily e-mail newsletter. It's the freshest tech news and opinion, served hot. Get it.

More from “The ToyBox”

Topics

Smart Phone, Industry, Organic Light-emitting Diode, Smart Phones, Cellular Phones, Handhelds, Consumer Electronics, Personal Technology, Hardware, Rachel King

Rachel King is a staff writer for ZDNet based in San Francisco.

Disclosure

Rachel King

Rachel King has no business relationships, affiliations, investments, or other potential conflicts of interest relating to the content posted in this blog.

Biography

Rachel King

Rachel King is a staff writer for CBS Interactive in San Francisco. Before serving as a contributing editor at ZDNet in New York City for two years, she previously worked for The Business Insider, FastCompany.com, CNN's San Francisco bureau and the U.S. Department of State. Rachel has also written for MainStreet.com, Irish America Magazine and the New York Daily News, among others. Rachel has a B.A. in Mass Communications and History from the University of California, Berkeley and a M.S. in Journalism from Columbia University, where she served as art director for the student magazine, Plated.

6
Comments
Add Your Opinion

Join the conversation!

Just In

RE: OLED shortage could be problematic for Android smartphone industry
ShermB 14th Jul 2010
@redking44

It's actually a good thing that the price of water or gas goes up during a shortage.

Higher prices prevent a select few from stocking up on supplies, depriving others who need the same supplies.

Higher prices also prevent others from buying goods and reselling them at even higher prices.

Higher prices allows the proprietor to make up income in cost instead of volume, which allows the proprietor to continue to operate, pay bills, pay employees, etc.

Higher prices during a shortage allow more people to get needed goods. An increase in price, dampens demand, thereby increasing availability. Whereas a decrease in price, increases demand, and furthers the shortages.

What do you think?
View in thread
0 Votes
+ -
Best way to increase profits...
BitTwiddler 8th Jul 2010
Create a shortage! That's the biggest problem with supply and demand. The MFR has control over the supply and can artificially manipulate it.

Oil. RAM. Gasoline. Just about every commodity out there can be manipulated to increase prices and profits.

Is that happening here?

Dunno. I doubt it's out of the question though.
0 Votes
+ -
RE: OLED shortage could be problematic for Android smartphone industry
branchman67 9th Jul 2010
@BitTwiddler - Because it worked so well for Sony with PS2s/PS3s. They kept selling expensive products with shortage issues, and along came the Wii, with a cheaper price point and plenty of stock and shot right by them. Intentional shortages is a game you can only play for so long, before someone beats you to the market with a cheaper option (that's the beauty of capitalism). If they were to create an artificial shortage now, and drive up the prices, don't you think that would play right into the hands of, oh, say, Apple??? Honestly, I'll bet they didn't expect this kind of popularity and got caught with their pants down on the supply chain. It would only benefit Samsung and LG to sell 184 million units instead of a mere 20 million. Sometimes it's not a conspiracy, sometime you just misread the market.
0 Votes
+ -
RE: OLED shortage could be problematic for Android smartphone industry
Hameiri 8th Jul 2010
@BitTwiddler Yes, it's possible in a free market that a manufacturer could manipulate supply and demand. Of course, they have to be careful, because of competitors. The more they get for a product, the more likely others will see dollar signs and get into the fray. Of course, you should be happy they are creating to product in the first place.

The alternative is central planning. This has been tried since the beginning of civilization. It never works as well as Capitalism, because no government, group or individual is smart enough to run a complete economy, so you get horrible shortages in the simplest necessities.

Freedom....Capitalism. The new ideas.
0 Votes
+ -
Necessary market adjustments
Economister 8th Jul 2010
@Hameiri

In any popular new product category, there will ALWAYS be temporary shortages and attempts to price gouge. Opportunities to make greater profits is what attracts new producers, which over time increases capacity and lowers the price to a point where the quantity supplied equals the quantity demanded. This is how a competitive market is supposed to operate.

If the market is not competitive due to very few producers or collusion, all bets are off and the regulators are supposed to step in.



This is how just a competitive market
0 Votes
+ -
RE: OLED shortage could be problematic for Android smartphone industry
redking44 8th Jul 2010
If a competitive market is best why does the US government object to $10 bottles of water during hurricanes (and similar disasters)?

If the price is too high, just buy another phone. Those aren't necessities.
0 Votes
+ -
RE: OLED shortage could be problematic for Android smartphone industry
ShermB 14th Jul 2010
@redking44

It's actually a good thing that the price of water or gas goes up during a shortage.

Higher prices prevent a select few from stocking up on supplies, depriving others who need the same supplies.

Higher prices also prevent others from buying goods and reselling them at even higher prices.

Higher prices allows the proprietor to make up income in cost instead of volume, which allows the proprietor to continue to operate, pay bills, pay employees, etc.

Higher prices during a shortage allow more people to get needed goods. An increase in price, dampens demand, thereby increasing availability. Whereas a decrease in price, increases demand, and furthers the shortages.

What do you think?

Join the conversation!

Formatting +
BB Codes - Note: HTML is not supported in forums
  • [b] Bold [/b]
  • [i] Italic [/i]
  • [u] Underline [/u]
  • [s] Strikethrough [/s]
  • [q] "Quote" [/q]
  • [ol][*] 1. Ordered List [/ol]
  • [ul][*] · Unordered List [/ul]
  • [pre] Preformat [/pre]
  • [quote] "Blockquote" [/quote]
ie8 fix

The best of ZDNet, delivered

ZDNet Newsletters

Get the best of ZDNet delivered straight to your inbox

Facebook Activity

Blog Roll

Blog Archive

White Papers, Webcasts, & Resources
ie8 fix