Flat panel display market research and consulting firm DisplaySearch reported in the latest Quarterly Mobile Phone Shipment and Forecast Report that mobile phone main display and subdisplay shipments reached 183 and 41 million units, respectively, in Q3'04. Mobile phone main display shipments grew faster than the number of mobile phones, which is estimated at 167 million in Q3'04.
Additional highlights from the report include the following:
- Color phones with digital imaging capabilities are driving phone sales, rising from 50 million units in 2002 to more than 180 million sets in 2004.
- By technology, Q3'04 was the first quarter when CSTN display shipments were down Q/Q. a-Si TFT LCD shipments were up 13 percent and p-Si TFT LCDs were up 20 percent sequentially due to a continuing shift from passive matrix to active matrix color displays.
- Sharp was No. 1 in main display revenue at 17 percent and No. 4 in shipments at 11.3 percent; Samsung SDI was No. 1 in shipments at 19.7 percent and No. 2 in revenue at 14.7 percent; Epson was No. 3 in revenue and shipments at 14 percent and 13.3 percent, respectively.
- Samsung SDI was also the leader in subdisplay shipments with a 28.9 percent share followed by Optrex at 9.8 percent and Wintek at 7.4 percent.
- For color mobile phones, 128×128 was the most popular resolution followed by 176×220 and 128×160. Higher resolution 240×320 is expected to gain shares in upper end mobile phone products as video becomes more important.
- OLEDs reentered the main display market in small volume during Q3’04 and are expected to grow in upcoming quarters.
Display purchases tend to be a good predictor of mobile phone demand shipment shares for the next quarter. In terms of main displays purchased in Q3’04, Nokia led with a 31 percent share, recovering from their drop below 30 percent in 1H’04. With a 13.8 percent share, Motorola narrowly regained second place from Samsung, which dropped back to third with a 13.5 percent share.
For more information, visit www.displaysearch.com.
