It’s reported that the OLED lighting market will reach almost US $4.5 billion by 2013 and grow to $5.9 billion by 2015. According to related analysis, in the past year the prospects for OLED lighting have made great leaps forward due to improvements in OLED performance and manufacturing.

The unit costs of OLED lights are likely to remain higher than older general lighting technologies but the extra costs will be offset by improved OLED lifetimes and efficiencies. During 2008, OLED lifetimes improved from 24 Khrs to 100 Khrs. Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Energy now expects OLED lighting to reach 150 lm/W efficiency in 2012 rather than 2014 as previously forecast. Some firms forecast that these and other improvements in OLEDs will drive the general illumination market to $2.3 billion in revenues by 2015.

In addition, manufacturing processes for OLEDs have also progressed significantly. GE and the Fraunhofer Institute have both demonstrated roll-to-roll manufacturing of OLED lighting which will ultimately lead to significant cost improvements in OLED fabrication. Low cost printing approaches and new small molecule inks will also help propel OLEDs into the backlighting market. The related expects that the OLED backlighting market will reach $1.1 billion by 2015. And while the first OLED lighting panels are quite small, the recent scaling up of factories in Asia to build large OLED displays will certainly benefit the manufacturing infrastructure for OLED lighting and lead to larger panels within a few years.

During 2008, the flat and flexible format presented by OLEDs creates an opportunity to design high-value added lighting fixtures with an appeal to upscale consumers and especially architects. Lighting designer Ingo Maurer introduced the world's first OLED "function table light" and researchers at GE are targeting lighted curtains and lighted wallpaper. It’s estimated that by 2015, the sales of OLED architectural and specialist industrial lighting will reach $1.9 billion.