Pale LG and Samsung each announced, on May 17, 2009, that the company has sold 20 million touchscreen phones in about two years. LG and Samsung has developed some very cool smartphones in the last couple of years. Samsung will be unleashing its 3.2″ OLED touch Android I7500 smartphone soon while LG has been quietly bombarding the world with a ton of touch smartphone models. But these numbers pale against the leaders: Nokia, RIM and Apple.
Leaders Take Apple for instance. Apple’s numbers are easy to analyze since the company has a single touch smartphone, the iPhone. Apple sold 11.4 million iPhones in the fourth quarter of 2008 (Source: The iPod Observer). That’s just one phone and for one quarter. According to Gartner, in the fourth quarter of 2008, Nokia was on top followed by RIM with a 19.5% market share and Apple with 10.7% (Source: Mobile Burn). Sources indicate that Apple will be launching an enhanced iPhone in June during the WWDC or at a small press conference in Cupertino soon after. RIM will be announcing its Storm 2 soon and Palm’s Pre will launch in the first week of June. Nokia will also be launching its N97 very soon.
Popular Overall smartphones are quite popular: According to NPD 23% of all mobile phones sold in the US were smartphones in the fourth quarter (Source: Top News). Smartphones generally have larger screens (LCDs and OLEDs) and should bode well for LCD manufacturers playing in this space. iSuppli expects smartphones to grow 11% year over year to 192 million units in 2009 (Source: Cult of Mac).
Source: Telecoms Korea
According to the New York Times, Palm’s Pre (NASDAQ: PALM) will be launching in the first week of June. Interestingly, Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (NASDAQ: AAPL) is on the second week of June. Will Palm’s Pre meet its stratospheric expectations? Will its introduction dampen excitement surrounding the next iteration of the iPhone? Or will the Pre, iPhone and other Google phones lift the entire smartphone boat? We live in exciting times…
Source: The New York Times
Photo Courtesy: China Daily. It’s an old but telling picture (2007) of a little boy attracted by large LCD TVs.
China LCD TV demand from China is having a huge impact. Industry sources are saying that due to the strong demand from China for LCD TVs, LCD panel prices will continue to increase through June. The demand increase is largely affecting AU Optronics (NYSE: AUO) and Chi Mei Optoelectronics (TPE: 3009), two of the largest LCD suppliers in Taiwan. Other LCD suppliers such as Samsung, LG Display (NYSE: LPL), Sharp, etc. are still cautious about a global recovery for LCD goods.
25 Million LCD TV sales in China was originally expected to hit 18 to 20 million units in 2009. That number has now increased by up to 25 percent from 24 to 25 million units. This boost in LCD TV demand from China should have a positive impact on companies that are related to AUO and CMO’s supply chain such as suppliers for LCD glass, backlight units, optical films, LED chips and integrators.
Fickle Demand Brands will need to watch out for rising prices since that will erode profit margins on products they sell. If LCD panel prices rise too much brands will be forced to raise prices or eat profits in order not to dampen demand that is already fickle.
Source: DigiTimes
Although there are really advanced resistive technologies out there capacitive is generally better when it comes to things like smartphones. If rumors coming out of DigiTimes is true, Nokia is tapping Synaptics to enhance its mobile phones and smartphones from resistive to capacitive touch. These phones will be launched in the third quarter of 2009. Sources also noted that multi-touch could be a possibility. Synaptics is considered the leader in capacitive touch technology and currently supplies touchscreen ICs to Samsung, High Tech Computer (HTC), Research in Motion (RIM) and others.
LG Display (NYSE: LPL) and Samsung will be launching a joint research and development project for OLED deposition equipment. This is according to an announcement on May 15, 2009 by the Korea Display Industry Association (KDIA). Last year these two companies worked together on manufacturing digital exposure equipment. In the future, LG Display and Samsung will expand their R&D cooperation into next-generation display processing technology and core materials source technology.
OLED deposition methods must be suited for large-area and roll-to-roll processing to significantly improve the chance for OLED to realize widespread commercial use as a light source or display. It is somewhat strange that LG Display and Samsung are working together to research and develop OLED deposition equipment, which will undoubtedly be a crucial step toward commercializing OLED technology for displays and lighting. All major LCD manufacturers are racing to develop OLED, touted as the next-generation display technology.
The benefits of OLED displays are clear: low-power, extremely high contrast, ultra-thin and organic. There are many challenges that remain including: differential aging of organic materials, fast and stable electron manipulation across large substrates, cost of manufacturing, etc.
Source: The Chosun Ilbo
DisplayBlog is written and produced by Jin Kim. Subscribe via RSS.