The popularity of Apple’s iPhone 5, and Samsung’s Galaxy S4 smartphones has proven to be a very good thing for smartphone display manufacturers, as a new report from NPD DisplaySearch says both devices have created a boom in revenues for those companies.
NPD’s newest report on the mobile device display industry pegs 2013 revenues for the segment at $33.3 billion by the end of the year. That represents a 55 percent jump over revenues for 2012, driven in large part by rising smartphone display average sale prices.
Those rising display ASPs, according to NPD DisplaySearch vice president Hiroshi Hayase, stem from two devices in particular: the iPhone 5 and Galaxy S4.
“The top two brands leading growth in the global smartphone market — Samsung with its Galaxy S4 series and Apple with its iPhone 5 series — continue to increase production volume and market share,” Hayashi explained. “The growth in sales for these popular smartphone brands has led to increased requirements for high-end flat panel displays, including AMOLED used in the Galaxy S4 and LTPS TFT LCD used in the iPhone 5.”
NPD sees active-matrix organic light emitting diode (AMOLED) display technology becoming the leading technology over the course of 2013, grabbing 37% of display revenues. Samsung’s Galaxy S4, and Motorola’s new Moto X handsets already feature that technology.
With Apple holding onto LCD displays with in-plane switching, NPD expects that technology to benefit from the popularity of Apple’s devices, taking a 36.1% share of the display revenue.
