Samsung Display Captures the Foldable Panel Rebound in 2026

Omdia forecasts foldable smartphone AMOLED shipments will rise 44% to 29 million units in 2026, with Samsung Display taking 66% of that market. The research firm says the Korean panel maker is the exclusive AMOLED supplier for Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Apple’s iPhone Duo.

Chinese display makers are forecast to lose share on the same tape, even as wider book-style phones pull the category out of a weak first half.

Foldable Panels Are Forecast to Hit 29 Million

Omdia’s display team, in a note dated October 21, put foldable AMOLED shipments of 29 million units for 2026, up 44% from 2025. The driver it names is not a late Apple halo on the old tall fold. It is a new, wider book-type screen.

Older book foldables paired a 10:9 main display with a 21:9 cover. The new crop uses ratios such as 4:3 and 14:10, which Omdia says suit tablet-like splitting of apps, web pages, social feeds, and work. LTPO flexible AMOLED is expected to grow with that mix.

Wide-screen foldable phones are expected to take 44% of foldable panel shipments in 2026, a share figure that happens to match the unit growth rate and is a different cut of the same forecast. Omdia also warns that panel shipments and finished-phone shipments are tracked apart and often land in different quarters, because glass ships into assembly before the handset does.

Foldable smartphone #display shipments are forecast to jump 44% to 29 million units in 2026. New wider-screen designs from Samsung and Apple are driving this major market rebound. Read the full Omdia research here: https://t.co/4tWNpS6U5S pic.twitter.com/OXbbsMONUr

— Omdia (@OmdiaHQ) October 21, 2026

A Single Supplier for Two Flagships

Samsung Display’s 66% full-year forecast rests on a simple booking: it is the only AMOLED source Omdia lists for Galaxy Z Fold 8 and iPhone Duo. Those two phones are sold as rivals. Their inner panels come from one factory group.

The year is not a straight line to that 66%. Omdia’s third-quarter cut, published in September, had Samsung Display at 83.5% of foldable OLED panel shipments, up 35.8 points from a year earlier, on 7.95 million units, 2.3 times the prior quarter. The full-year 66% is lower because the first half was weak and more mixed.

SAMSUNG DISPLAY’S FOLDABLE PANEL SHARE

Second-half foldable OLED revenue at Samsung Display is projected at $2.825 billion, 4.3 times the first-half figure, as Apple’s panels start to ship in volume. That is the cash version of the share table: one supplier collecting the premium glass on both of the year’s heavy phones.

Huawei Opened the Wide Screen First

Omdia’s October display note says Samsung and Apple introduced wider book-type phones in 2026. Its August phone outlook named a different first mover. Zaker Li, a principal analyst at Omdia, put Huawei’s Pura X Max in May ahead of Galaxy Z Fold 8 in August.

Huawei pioneered this new wide-format design with the Pura X Max in May 2026, followed by Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 8 in August. With other leading vendors set to launch similar products in the coming months, this new category is driving a fresh wave of growth in the foldable smartphone market.

Zaker Li, Principal Analyst, Omdia Smartphone Feature Forecast

Huawei unveiled Pura X Max on April 20 and put it on sale in May. The inner panel is 7.7 inches at 2584 by 1828 pixels, about 14.1:10. The 5.4-inch cover uses the same ratio. Unfolded, the phone is 5.2 mm thick.

Samsung’s reply was a shorter, wider Fold. Galaxy Z Fold 8 pairs a 5.5-inch cover with a 7.6-inch inner display at a 4:3 ratio. Samsung said the Fold 8, Fold 8 Ultra, and Flip 8 drew 1.44 million preorders in South Korea in the seven days from July 28 to August 3, above the Galaxy Note 10’s 1.38 million. Fold 8 took about 70% of that mix, at roughly 140 units a minute. The lineup started its global rollout on August 7 in more than 100 countries.

THE WIDE FOLDABLE CALENDAR

1. April 20, 2026: Huawei unveils Pura X Max with matching wide inner and cover screens.
2. May 18, 2026: Pura X Max goes on sale.
3. July 28, 2026: Samsung opens Galaxy Z Fold 8, Fold 8 Ultra, and Flip 8 preorders in South Korea.
4. August 3, 2026: Those three phones reach 1.44 million Korean preorders.
5. August 7, 2026: The Galaxy Z lineup starts its global rollout.
6. September 9, 2026: Apple unveils iPhone Duo.
7. October 16, 2026: iPhone Duo preorders open at 5 a.m. PT.
8. October 21, 2026: Omdia publishes the 29 million panel forecast.
9. October 23, 2026: iPhone Duo availability begins.

On September 9, Apple introduced iPhone Duo as its first foldable iPhone, with preorders from October 16 and availability on October 23. The public fight around that phone has been whether its screen beats Fold 8. Both inner panels are Samsung Display jobs. The fight is finish, software, and supply, not two panel industries.

Why Phone Shipments Lag the Glass

Omdia’s August phone outlook still has 2026 finishing at more than 22 million foldable phones, growth above 22%. That is a slower bounce than the 44% jump in panels to 29 million, and the two series are not meant to match quarter by quarter. Glass moves into Apple’s ramp before every Duo is in a box, and a foldable carries more than one OLED.

The first half of 2026 was a trough. Finished foldable phones fell 21.6% to 5.1 million units. Flip-style models dropped 47% from the first half of 2025, while book-type units were roughly flat and still took 69% of the mix. Huawei held 57% of book-type shipments in that half, with Samsung at 18%; together they had 75%. HONOR had 9%, OPPO 7%, vivo 6%, and everyone else 3%.

OMDIA FOLDABLE PHONE OUTLOOK

So the panel rebound is a second-half event stacked on a format change, not a smooth climb from last year’s 18.2 million phones. Flips keep shrinking. The units that fill the glass forecast are wide books from Samsung and Apple, plus whatever Chinese brands add once they copy the layout.

Share Losses for BOE, CSOT, Visionox and Tianma

Omdia’s October supply-chain line is blunt. Chinese display makers are expected to lose foldable-panel share because foldable demand from Chinese smartphone brands is weakening. That sits next to a first half in which Huawei, a Chinese brand, led book-type phones. The two facts can both be true because Huawei’s 57% was a first-half number, before Fold 8 and iPhone Duo arrived, and because those two phones do not buy Chinese glass.

BOE, China Star (CSOT), Visionox, and Tianma are the names that show up when that share slips. They still ship foldable OLED to Chinese and other Android brands. They are not on the two SKUs Omdia says will reset 2026 volumes. Q3 already showed the squeeze: Samsung Display’s 7.95 million panels arrived while those Chinese makers were forecast to decline across the board.

A wide-fold boom that runs through Samsung Electronics and Apple is, for a panel maker, a boom that runs through Samsung Display. Phone-brand maps and panel-brand maps have come apart.

What Apple Put on the iPhone Duo Screen

Apple markets a 7.6-inch inner Super Retina XDR display, 50% larger than iPhone 18 Pro Max, and a 5.4-inch cover that it says holds 90% of the screen area of iPhone 18 Pro. Spec sheets measure the inner display measured 7.58 inches diagonally and the outer at 5.36 inches. Both faces share the same aspect ratio, so a window keeps its shape when the phone opens. When open, Apple calls it the thinnest iPhone it has shipped.

IPHONE DUO DISPLAY FACTS

• Inner screen: 7.6-inch Super Retina XDR, 50% larger than iPhone 18 Pro Max, with a nano-texture finish meant to cut glare and hide the crease.
• Cover screen: 5.4-inch Super Retina XDR with 90% of the screen area of iPhone 18 Pro, same aspect ratio as the inner panel.
• Motion and light: ProMotion adaptive refresh up to 120Hz, 1000 nits typical, 1600 nits peak HDR, 3000 nits peak outdoors.
• Input: Apple Pencil (USB-C) support on the inner panel, which Android wide folds have treated as a tablet feature.
• Body: Grade 5 titanium in star white and night sky, IP68 to 6 meters for 30 minutes, dual batteries, A20 Pro chip.

That list is why a custom Samsung Display panel is not a Galaxy Z Fold 8 panel with a different logo. Apple specified the finish, the matching ratios, and Pencil. Samsung Display still invoices the glass. For 2026, that invoice is large enough to move a global share number.

The 60% Wide Mix Omdia Sees Next Year

Brian Huh, principal analyst in Omdia’s display practice, put the next step on Chinese phone brands, not on a second Apple SKU.

Display shipments for wide-screen foldable smartphones are expected to account for 44% of total foldable panel shipments in 2026. This share is expected to surpass the 60% threshold in 2027 driven by the entry of additional Chinese makers into the market.

Brian Huh, Principal Analyst, Omdia Display research practice

Omdia still has the finished category at 36 million phones in 2028 and 45 million in 2030, under 3% of global smartphones even then. High bill-of-materials costs on flexible panels, hinges, and cover glass keep the devices in the premium band. The glass forecast can jump 44% in a year without foldables becoming the default phone.

Chinese brands are due to copy the wide layout in 2027, which is how Huh gets wide screens past 60% of foldable panels. Those extra phones do not automatically restore share to BOE, CSOT, Visionox, or Tianma if the expensive units stay on Samsung Display’s line.