As global smartphone shipments are expected to increase 22% on year in 2015 to over 1.487 billion units from roughly 1.22 billion in 2014, panel surface demand will follow suit.
Market estimations from China-based consulting company Ʃintell have stated the average screen size of smartphones available for sale in the China market has increased from 3.24-inch in 2011 to 3.74-inch in 2012, 4.22-inch in 2013 and will further increase to 4.6-inch in 2014 and over 5-inch in 2015.
Additionally, global production capacity for smartphone panels in 2015 is estimated at 25.733 million square meters, growing on year by 27.3%, the firm said.
However, smartphone demand will not be limited to China. Other emerging markets throughout Southeast Asia as well as India will drive demand, where panel technology such as HD, WVGA and qHD will be a focus for makers.
Of the three largest China-based small- to medium-size TFT-LCD panel makers, BOE Technology will ship 50% of its smartphone panels to Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics, which are expected to further tackle emerging markets. Additionally, 14.8% of the makers' supply will go to China-based vendor Lenovo and 11.9% to China-based white-box vendors in 2015, according to Digitimes Research estimates.
Growing smartphone market in 2015 to drive handset panel demand
Photo: Michael Lee, Digitimes, December 2014
Article translated by Alex Wolfgram
