Organic light-emitting diode displays largely produced by South Korea’s leading panel makers LG Display and Samsung Display are being deployed in more devices, squeezing out cheaper liquid crystal displays at a remarkable rate.

As the market for the thinner and more flexible display panels expands, Apple is planning to adopt OLED panels for its new iPad series scheduled for 2023 for the first time, industry sources said Monday.

Apple has sourced OLED panels for iPhones from both LG and Samsung, but it would mark the first time for the company to place orders for larger OLEDs for the tablet products.

The new iPad screen is predicted to be 12.9 inches large.

The US tech giant topped the tablet PC market last year, showed data from market researcher IDC.

It sold 53 million units, accounting for 60 percent of the global tablet market.

If Apple continues to order OLED panels from the two Korean panel makers, its decision to adopt OLEDs for iPad would benefit LG and Samsung, market watchers say.

The Korean display manufacturers have been seeking to widen the use of OLED panels.

While LG has been making efforts to move its long-time focus from large OLED panels for TVs to smaller IT devices including laptops, Samsung has been enlarging the size of its commercial OLED panels fit for smartphones to laptops and other bigger devices.  

Samsung Electronics started using OLED panels for Galaxy Tabs in 2014, adding to the OLED market’s growth.

Some view that Samsung would take an advantage of its leadership in the small and mid-size OLED market to win more Apple orders. 

Samsung Display is expected to ship out a total of 2.35 million OLED panels for tablets this year, probably taking 59.5 percent of the market, forecast market researcher Omdia.

The display industry is upbeat about the growth of the OLED tablet PC market, forecasting the industry’s total shipments for tablet OLEDs at 4.76 million units next year, and to grow further to 8.87 million by 2026.

“As demand for highly responsive, brighter and clearer displays rises, due to the growing vehicle infotainment market and portable gaming device market, the sector for small and mid-size OLED panels has bright prospects for growth,” said an industry insider.

The COVID-19 pandemic has also contributed to the tablet PC display sector’s growth, he added.

“The tablet PC market itself has rapidly grown due to remote learning and teleconferences after the pandemic,” the official said. “With big customers like Apple, the tablet display market will continue expanding.”