You've heard all about Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED) screens, but you may never have seen one. When should you expect the wave of the future to crash into your pockets, office, and living room?
Well, how soon is now? We've finally been told which consumer electronics actually use Motley Fool Rule Breakers pick Universal Display's (Nasdaq: PANL ) OLED screens, and when they're coming to an electronics store near you.
Where's the beef?
So far, the information has been limited to who makes the screens themselves under technology license from Universal. Last year, it was mostly AU Optronics (NYSE: AUO ) , but Samsung SDI has taken over that preferred-partner status. Samsung is running commercial volume production of 2-inch OLED screens now, and Universal Display CEO Steve Abramson has plenty to say about what Samsung is doing with his technology.
"The customer list includes some of the biggest names in the industry -- Toshiba, Hitachi (NYSE: HIT ) , KDDI, Sony Ericsson, Kyocera (NYSE: KYO ) , and Nokia (NYSE: NOK ) -- and represents a sizable potential market for AMOLED (Active Matrix OLED) displays," he said in last night's earnings call. The Nokia Prism 7900 was held up as a "great example of how Samsung SDI displays are being featured in commercial handsets today." Nokia's advertising materials about this handset give plenty of space to OLED talk, highlighting its high picture quality and low power draw as user-friendly features.
Samsung SDI plans to introduce bigger OLED screens in the near future, starting with models in the 3.5-inch to 7-inch range next year. "Their announced road map includes 14-, 15-, and 21-inch panels in 2009 and large 40- to 42-inch Full-HD OLED TVs in 2010." In other words, what we're looking at today are just the very first baby steps of the wholesale display revolution we've been waiting for. At least now we know when to expect the big guns to roll out.
There's more where that came from
The buck doesn't stop with Samsung SDI. Universal signed a commercial supply agreement with Taiwanese manufacturer Chi Mei El earlier this year, opening up the local Chinese and Korean handset markets. Samsung Electronics, a corporate cousin to SDI, plans to sell 14-inch AMOLED televisions in 2009, and Seiko Epson has an 8-inch product waiting in the wings. LG.Philips LCD (NYSE: LPL ) is ready to go with 3-inch screens early next year, and it just joined Universal in the flexible display project it is doing for the U.S. Department of Defense. The long-term goal there is to "make flexible displays a commercial reality."
And you remember Sony's (NYSE: SNE ) 11-inch TV sets that will hit shelves on Dec. 1? Well, that screen doesn't use Universal's patents, but it's still good news for the industry. Abramsons thinks this product announcement, along with Samsung SDI's aggressive commercial ramp-up, brought on the avalanche of OLED product plans we just went over.
Show me the money!
This quarter's revenue and net losses were in the same ballpark as the year-ago figures -- $3.1 million in sales and a $3.0 million GAAP loss. Fellow Fool Rich Smith worried about continuing losses and cash burn when he previewed this earnings report, and Rich wasn't wrong.
But last year, only $735,000 of the sales came from commercial chemicals and patent licensing, vs. about $1.4 million this time. The balance in both cases was research and development contract deals. Abramson referred to the high number of OLEDs Samsung SDI can make over the next year as already under contract for delivery, so the electronics industry clearly wants as much OLED as the manufacturers can give it.
The majority of the company's revenue is still research-related, but Universal Display is ready to rock out of the research stage and onto the mature, commercial, money-making scene. The manufacturing partners are in place, and their clients are some of the biggest global names in electronics. The future is now.
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