COB LED Display Panels: Heading for Boom or Bottleneck?

Since 2025, China’s COB LED display market has been quite dynamic. Phenomena including price cuts, capacity expansion, soaring sales volume and declining capacity utilization are brewing a new round of “industry reshuffle”!

Boom or Bust? The Current Market

Statistics show that since the start of this year, the average price of COB LEDs has dropped by over 30% to 40%. Major LED display manufactrers have doubled their sales scale, and some even achieved growth rates exceeding 120%. In 2025, It is clear that missed the COB market manufacturers are now facing an extremely severe market situation.

Capacity Expansion: Boom or Bottleneck for COB?

From the competitive landscape between COB and traditional SMD technologies, in H1 2025, COB products accounted for 36.6% of China’s small-pitch LED market sales, a year-on-year increase of 15.2 percentage points. Notably, despite the sharp price drop, COB LED wall sales still grew by over 70%.

In the P1.4 and mid-to-high-end applications, COB’s sales share reached as high as 51.5%. In contrast, the sales share of traditional SMD packaging technology fell by 15.3 percentage points, hitting a record low.

However, a “COB boom” is far from an easy achievement. Data from industry research institutions shows that COB’s monthly capacity in 2025 is expected to exceed 90,000 square meters (converted to P1.2 standard). It is a 400% increase compared to the end of 2023.

The number of enterprises with monthly capacity over 200 square meters has risen from 7 in 2023 to 16 in 2025. In Q1 2025, the actual capacity utilization rate was only 60%–65%, highlighting the prominent issue of oversupply.

The sharp price cuts stem from two factors: matured technology and reduced costs; market pressure and low capacity utilization.

The COB boom is not entirely driven by “positive” factors. Capacity pressure has become another side of the COB market, indicating that the channel for COB price declines is still far from closing.

Top LED manufacturers Increase Investment; Panel Concept Drives COB Popularity

In Q1 2025, NationStar took the lead in proposing that the future of LED displays lies in “panelization” and launched the new MiP  product series with panelized packaging.

In its H1 2025 annual report, MTC Electronic stated, “The company continues to develop new display technologies including COB, COG and COF  to ensure its leadership, foresight and comprehensiveness in the Mini/Micro LED new display era” . COB, COG and COF can all be regarded as panelized LED display products.

Doitvision launched COB all-in-one products, emphasizing that COB’s advantages such as reliability, durability and low maintenance costs. It is suitable for “retail display terminal ” like all-in-ones.

It is evident that “panelization” has become a clear consensus in the LED direct display industry, with advantages in three key aspects:

• Application: Reduces maintenance costs for large-screen projects by 60%, and significantly improves durability and stability.
• Production: High integration in manufacturing. It is easier to achieve economies of scale.
• Innovation: Better compatibility with advanced Mini/Micro LED technologies, and more friendly to integrated IC-driven packaging structures, AM drives and glass substrates.

Based on this, traditional “LED display panel” manufacturers are making aggressive inroads into the COB LED direct display market:

Recently, TCL Huaxing successfully held a mass production ceremony for COB direct display at its Suzhou base.

BOE Technology recently completed bidding for key equipment for its Mini/Micro LED COB display project, including vacuum laminators, automated online transmission systems, module aging equipment and die expanders.

As global leaders in the display panel market, BOE and TCL ’s intentions to strengthen their COB LED product lines are nothing short of a “game-changer” for the industry’s supply structure and competitive balance.

In addition, traditional LED manufacturers are also expanding capacity. Earlier this year, Unilumin Technology announced a total investment of 600 million yuan to build a “Micro & Mini LED Display and LED Lighting Production Base Project” in Nanchang High-Tech Industrial Development Zone. It focus on COB packaging production lines, chip-level MiP packaging production lines and other LED display/lighting lines.

Combined with enterprises in the color TV, LCD panel and traditional LED display industries, there are no fewer than 20 industry players with ongoing COB capacity expansion projects. Given the current coexistence of sharp COB price cuts and low operating rates, the industry may face more severe supply-demand imbalance risks due to the entry of more LED display manufacturers.

Capacity Expansion vs. Market Expansion: Winners’ “Bets”

Why are industry enterprises still expanding COB capacity significantly despite low utilization rates? There are three key reasons:

Filling Supply-Side Gaps

Non-traditional LED enterprises such as TCL Huaxing, HKC and Hisense must consider the possibility of “widespread panelized LEDs” when competing for future shares in the LED display market. Their goals include:

Deploying new LED display applications.

Offsetting potential substitution of traditional display technologies by large LED screens.

Stock Market Substitution Logic

Currently, COB products account for 15%–25% of China’s and the global small-pitch LED stock market, mainly because their average price is still 2–3 times that of traditional SMD. The industry believes that when the price ratio of COB to SMD products with the same pitch drops to 1.5–1.8. A full-scale substitution will occur.

COB outperforms SMD in maintainability, visual effects and compatibility with future technologies. This forces traditional SMD manufacturers to shift to emerging technologies such as COB, MiP or COG to survive in the future.

 Among these, COB has the highest maturity and lowest entry threshold, making it a must-compete area for traditional SMD LED display manufacturers.

Demand-Side Popularization in Incremental Scenarios

Demand for LED direct displays in incremental scenarios is becoming increasingly “popularized”. Popular users and even consumers of large-screen home TVs have higher requirements for reliability, making panelized and highly integrated packaging an essential technology to support market expansion and new scenarios.

Particularly, as COB products still have room for price cuts, the industry holds high expectations for future “incremental COB demand”.

Overseas Market Potential

Overseas demand for LED direct displays is far less developed and popularized than in China. With the global construction of digital and intelligent societies, incremental demand is expected to grow.

China leading LED display enterprises derive over 50% of their revenue from overseas markets, and some mid-upstream enterprises even have over 70% of their end products deployed overseas. From their perspective, the “intense competition” in China’s domestic COB market is just a small part of the overall market, with more market space yet to be explored.

Overseas growth potential and substitution of SMD are the core logics behind the industry’s COB capacity expansion despite low utilization rates. “

Enterprises may miscalculate the pace of market growth, but they will not miscalculate the final growth outcome,” industry experts said. Under this logic, not investing in advanced capacity expansion such as COB means “waiting for inevitable elimination”; while investing more in advanced capacity allows enterprises to compete for the future through market development capabilities, technological upgrading and cost optimization.

There is no guarantee of winning, but enterprises cannot avoid facing the challenge.

As one of the earliest COB LED panel manufacturers, Doitvision has always maintained its leading technology. We have a variety of COB LED displays that are popular with customers.

Doitvision All-in-One COB LED Wall Solution

Doitvision is a professional LED display solution provider. We provide standardized All-in-One COB all-in-one wall and customized solutions.

• True 4K display, support 0.78mm/0.62mm small pitch;
• All-in-one integration: built-in control card, Android/Windows system, audio, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth;
• Wall-mounted/floor-standing optional, suitable for different scenarios;
• Intelligent system: support wireless projection, remote management, voice control;
• Modular maintenance: support front maintenance, easy maintenance and replacement;
• High contrast anti-glare design, adapt to various light environments.
• Typical customer groups include government conference rooms, large chain retail, overseas high-end villa cinemas, etc.

Doitvision COB All-in-One LED TV

Portable | High-Definition | Interactive | All-in-One Solution

Superior Visual Quality

The Doitvision COB All-in-One LED TV  will bring outstanding visual experience. It supports the wide DCI-P3 color gamut,  true-to-life color reproduction. With high brightness and fine pixel pitch, viewers can comfortably stand close to the screen without noticing individual pixels. It is perfect for conference rooms, classrooms, and command centers.

Interactive Touch Control

Equipped with highly precise infrared touch technology, this display enables smooth, accurate interactions. With a touch accuracy of ±2mm, it supports natural writing and gesture controls, making meetings and presentations more dynamic and efficient.

Multiple Sizes Available

The COB All-in-One LED display comes in three standard sizes:

108”

135”

162”

Each configuration is designed to deliver Full HD or 2K resolution:

• P1.5mm pixel pitch: 5 modules for 2K resolution
• P1.8mm pixel pitch: 6 modules for 2K resolution

Seamless Multi-Screen Display

Experience collaborative work like never before with multi-screen display support. The system allows wireless screen mirroring from Windows, Mac OS, iOS, and Android devices. It also can be up to four screens simultaneously.

Integrated Smart Control System

Built with an Android 11.0 system, the COB wall includes a full set of input and output ports and supports external devices such as cameras, microphones, and other peripherals. It also features:

• Dual-channel stereo audio
• Optional dual operating systems: Android + Windows
• Easy remote management and control

Conclusion

COB technology is currently at a chaotic crossroads where boom and oversupply intersect. In the short term, capacity expansion and price competition are inevitable, and industry reshuffling is likely to occur based on differences in enterprises’ scale advantages, technological strengths and financial capabilities.

However, in the long run, mature technology, expanded application scenarios and overseas market potential will still inject impetus into its sustainable development.

Enterprises need to carefully balance scale and efficiency, innovation and cost to gain an advantage in the new round of COB and other new display transformations.