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Displays give people an insight into the digital world. Whether smartphones, AR/VR/MR glasses, monitors on PCs, vending machines and machines or large advertising and display boards, displays are everywhere. The global market remains on course for growth.

Digitalization is increasing the need for human-machine interfaces (HMIs). Wherever data is visualized, moving images transmitted, or machines, vending machines or vehicles and aircraft operated, displays provide people with insight and an overview. Whether in offices, factories, recording studios, train stations, airports and retail, as touchscreens on smartphones, tablets, TVs and household appliances, as microdisplays in data glasses or as large advertising and display panels in public spaces, displays are already ubiquitous today—and market research unanimously predicts that global demand will continue to grow. MarketsandMarkets Research assumes annual growth of a good five percent, which would increase the global market volume from 135 billion to almost 174 billion US dollars between 2024 and 2029. A wide variety of technologies are included in the forecast: mature approaches such as liquid crystal display (LCD) or direct LED and OLED technology as well as innovations such as micro (µ)-LED, AMOLED or quantum dot screens as well as LCOS (liquid crystal on silicon) or DLP (digital light processing) displays and displays based on projection processes and e-paper. The new approaches combine increasing image quality with decreasing energy requirements.

Innovative technologies gaining market share

While analysts see mature, cost-effective LCD technology remaining in the lead until 2029 despite falling demand, energy-efficient OLEDs will be able to significantly grow their market share. MarketsandMarkets also predicts strong growth for the young µLED display technology with annual rates of over 80%. These screens are made up of many millions of µm-sized light-emitting diodes, with each pixel consisting of a red, green and blue diode with edge dimensions in the single-digit µm range. They are even more energy-efficient, achieve even higher image quality and are also considered much more robust than OLED technology. However, manufacturing costs are still high, but this is likely to change soon thanks to the use of highly efficient and high-precision laser processes in production.

Other market research companies such as the US-based Grand View Research or Allied Market Research, headquartered in Pune, India, draw similar trend lines for the global display market, although their figures differ significantly in part. The Indians, for example, expect annual growth rates of over seven percent until 2032, meaning that the market volume could rise to 244 billion US dollars according to their calculations. They also continue to see LCDs in the lead and expect a sharp increase in the market share of OLED displays as well as strong momentum in new display technologies. Grand View Research forecasts annual growth of 3.4 percent from 2024 to 2030, which means the market is expected to grow to 199.8 billion US dollars. However, despite the differences, the expected trends in the market are in line with the other forecasts. All of the consulting firms also share the view that this is a robustly growing multi-billion dollar market, in which OLEDs and innovative µLED displays in particular are causing a sensation.

Holographic displays with excellent growth prospects

The team of analysts at Allied Market Research was quick to point out the growth potential of holographic displays. In a three-year-old study, they forecast a tenfold increase in market volume between 2020 and 2030, with annual rates of almost 30 percent expected to catapult global sales of this technology from 1.1 billion to a good 11.6 billion US dollars. A forecast from 2023 to 2028 from Research and Markets is even more optimistic about the market prospects for holographic displays. According to this forecast, this young market could reach a volume of 17 billion US dollars as early as 2028. The consultants attribute this to the variety of possible applications, ranging from medicine, construction and engineering to displays in vehicles as well as advertisements and advertising in public spaces. The increasing demand in medical applications in particular is seen as an important growth driver. They cite X-ray and microscopy as examples, where digital holography not only serves as a display, but also enables precise quantitative measurements for diagnostic or surgical purposes. That also predestines them for use in other industries, such as the transport sector or mechanical engineering.