A new report from UBI Research says Apple remained the biggest buyer of smartphone OLED panels in 2025, extending its run at the top of the market to five straight years. The Korean display research firm says Apple purchased more than 250 million panels last year, keeping it ahead of every other phone brand.
Samsung Electronics ranked second with close to 200 million smartphone OLED panels purchased in 2025. Xiaomi followed with nearly 100 million units, while vivo, Huawei, OPPO, Honor, Motorola, and Google rounded out the rest of the major buyers tracked in the report.
According to UBI Research, Apple is likely to hold that lead until Samsung fully shifts its lower-end smartphone lineup over to OLED. In other words, the balance at the top probably won’t change much in the near term unless Samsung expands OLED adoption much more aggressively in its entry-level devices.
The firm also says the broader smartphone OLED market is facing some pressure from rising memory prices. Even so, higher-end OLED products appear to be less exposed to that pressure than cheaper models, which could help premium phones stay on their current display upgrade path.
For China’s mid-range and lower-end smartphone market, the report suggests the move from LCD to OLED may hit short-term friction. Still, the long-term direction hasn’t really changed. UBI Research expects the overall industry trend toward OLED to continue even if rising component costs temporarily slow the pace in more price-sensitive segments.
Taken together, the report paints a pretty clear picture: Apple is still the most important buyer in the OLED smartphone supply chain, premium OLED demand remains relatively resilient, and the LCD-to-OLED transition is still moving forward even if some brands have to navigate a tougher cost environment first.
