OLEDs dominate organic electronic market
If IDTechEx expert Raghu Das, author of the study titled "Printed, organic and Flexible Electronics: Forecasts, Players & Opportunities 2013 – 2023" is right, the market will show a stunning performance. From its current volume of $16.04 billion it will explode to $76,79 billion in 2013. This equals a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of impressive 15.3 %. Das sees three segments that have been extraordinarily successful with market volumes in the billion-dollar range: OLEDs (of course), e-paper and conductive ink. The OLED market is divided into two submarkets: Displays and lighting. OLED displays today can be seen in many small mobile devices like smartphones, music players and cameras. This market is already profitable, in contrast to the OLED lighting submarket. In any case, both will experience a steep growth, the paper says. The market researcher sees much movement in the display sector, as panel makers try to distance themselves from losses in the LCD industry. The landscape will change, the study predicts: Some East Asian countries are potentially unable to afford extensive R&D in OLEDs. These countries are, unusual enough in today’s electronics economy environment, China and Taiwan.
Some companies have survived ten years without making substantial sales or any profit. Some of these are now repositioning from trying to do something very difficult, such as replacing complete existing devices, to simpler things, allowing them to move to market more quickly. Few can keep going after ten years of minimal sales. Examples of new focus include finely printed patterns for transparent conductive films (a $1.8 billion opportunity), improving the performance of lithium batteries (a $25 billion market), enabling supercapacitors for vehicles and consumer electronics ($0.8 billion in 2013) and adding 3D touch surfaces to many things, as Ford has done for its overhead consoles in some cars.
The field of printed, organic and flexible electronics is broader than many people realize, the study concludes. There is strong interest in printed electronics enabling part of the Internet of Things vision; researchers are working on bringing together 3D printing with electronics; bioelectronics; touch surfaces everywhere – and much more.
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