Samsung Display sees OLED shipment surge in Q3 thanks to iPhone 13

Samsung Display saw its smartphone OLED panel shipment increase 24.6% quarter-to-quarter during the third quarter thanks to the launch of iPhone 13, according to data from UBI Research.

The South Korean display panel maker shipped 124.76 million units of the panels during the third quarter, the analyst firm said.

Out of its total shipment, 62.63 million units, or 50.2%, were rigid OLED panels for mid- to low-tier smartphones, UBI Research said.

Flexible OLED panels used by Samsung Electronics’ flagship phones and Apple’s iPhones accounted for 46.6% of the panel maker’s third quarter total, or 58.2 million units.

Samsung Display moved 3.93 million units of foldable OLED panels during the quarter, or 3.2% of its total shipment. All of them were used by Samsung Electronics, and foldable OLED panels supply for the Galaxy Z Flip 3 was double that of those provided for the Galaxy Z Fold 3, UBI Research noted.

Out of Samsung Display’s flexible OLED panel shipment, 39.31 million units were for Apple. This is double the supply it provided Cupertino with from the third quarter of 2020.

For Chinese companies, including Oppo and Vivo, it shipped 11.13 million units of flexible OLED panels. It supplied 7.76 million units of the premium OLED panels to Samsung Electronics.

In rigid OLED panel shipment, Samsung Electronics accounted for most of the supply with 29.75 million units (47.5%), Chinese companies took up 26.13 million units (41.7%) and US and European companies, which includes Google, accounted for 6.73 million units (10.7%).

Samsung Electronics uses rigid OLED panels on its Galaxy A and M series of phones.