News Article
Korean suppliers target small/medium display market
Attracted by the strong sales growth for diminutive active-matrix displays, South Korean suppliers are mounting an aggressive assault on the market for small/medium TFT-LCD panels, challenging the Japanese firms that now dominate this market segments.
Attracted by the strong sales growth for diminutive active-matrix displays, South Korean suppliers are mounting an aggressive assault on the market for small/medium TFT-LCD panels, challenging the Japanese firms that now dominate this market segments.
Small/medium displays are defined as screens smaller than 10-inches in diagonal size. Most of these displays are used in mobile phones, but they also are employed in other handheld electronic products, including MP3 players, personal media players (PMPs) and cameras/camcorders - as well as in automotive and industrial/financial applications.
Worldwide factory shipments of all types of small/medium display panels are expected to grow to 3.4 billion units in 2009, rising at a moderate compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3 percent from 2.9 billion in 2004.
However, within the small/medium display market, shipments of TFT-LCD panels are rising at a much faster rate, because they offer superior image quality compared to passive-matrix panels. Shipments of small/medium-sized TFT-LCD panels are expected to more than double during the coming years, rising to more than one billion units in 2009 at a CAGR of 20.2 percent from 417.8 million in 2004.
The leading suppliers in the small/medium display market are Japanese companies, including Sharp, Sanyo Epson, NEC, Hitachi and Toshiba Matsushita Display (TMD). These companies have focused their efforts on the smaller displays, having been largely ousted from the large-sized TFT-LCD market by South Korean competitors in the late-1990s.
The South Korean suppliers, Samsung Electronics and LG.Philips LCD, have traditionally produced only small volumes of small-sized panels, but they now are becoming more aggressive in this market. The two companies are expanding production capacity for small-sized TFT-LCD panels and are slashing prices in a bid to gain market share.
These initiatives have already started to yield results, with Samsung Electronics and LG.Philips LCD increasing their small/medium display market share at the expense of the Japanese in the second quarter (see table).
Sharp, TMD and Sanyo Epson maintained their top-three market-share positions in unit shipments of small/medium LCDs in the second quarter of 2005. However, all three companies experienced some loss in share compared to the first quarter.
In contrast, Samsung’s share rose to 11.4 percent in the second quarter, up from 9.4 percent in the first. This positioned Samsung in fourth place, up from fifth in the first quarter, and put the company within striking distance of Sanyo Epson’s number-three ranking.
Meanwhile, LG.Philips LCD achieved a more modest increase in market share, with its slice of unit shipments rising to 5.6 percent, up from 5.4 percent in the first quarter.
While Japanese hegemony is under threat, the nation’s companies still have some cards to play in the small/medium display area, iSuppli believes. These companies maintain a technological edge, which they can use to produce higher-quality displays than the competition.
They also have the opportunity to engage in mergers and acquisitions to bolster their manufacturing capacity.
Small/medium displays are defined as screens smaller than 10-inches in diagonal size. Most of these displays are used in mobile phones, but they also are employed in other handheld electronic products, including MP3 players, personal media players (PMPs) and cameras/camcorders - as well as in automotive and industrial/financial applications.
Worldwide factory shipments of all types of small/medium display panels are expected to grow to 3.4 billion units in 2009, rising at a moderate compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3 percent from 2.9 billion in 2004.
However, within the small/medium display market, shipments of TFT-LCD panels are rising at a much faster rate, because they offer superior image quality compared to passive-matrix panels. Shipments of small/medium-sized TFT-LCD panels are expected to more than double during the coming years, rising to more than one billion units in 2009 at a CAGR of 20.2 percent from 417.8 million in 2004.
The leading suppliers in the small/medium display market are Japanese companies, including Sharp, Sanyo Epson, NEC, Hitachi and Toshiba Matsushita Display (TMD). These companies have focused their efforts on the smaller displays, having been largely ousted from the large-sized TFT-LCD market by South Korean competitors in the late-1990s.
The South Korean suppliers, Samsung Electronics and LG.Philips LCD, have traditionally produced only small volumes of small-sized panels, but they now are becoming more aggressive in this market. The two companies are expanding production capacity for small-sized TFT-LCD panels and are slashing prices in a bid to gain market share.
These initiatives have already started to yield results, with Samsung Electronics and LG.Philips LCD increasing their small/medium display market share at the expense of the Japanese in the second quarter (see table).
Sharp, TMD and Sanyo Epson maintained their top-three market-share positions in unit shipments of small/medium LCDs in the second quarter of 2005. However, all three companies experienced some loss in share compared to the first quarter.
In contrast, Samsung’s share rose to 11.4 percent in the second quarter, up from 9.4 percent in the first. This positioned Samsung in fourth place, up from fifth in the first quarter, and put the company within striking distance of Sanyo Epson’s number-three ranking.
Meanwhile, LG.Philips LCD achieved a more modest increase in market share, with its slice of unit shipments rising to 5.6 percent, up from 5.4 percent in the first quarter.
While Japanese hegemony is under threat, the nation’s companies still have some cards to play in the small/medium display area, iSuppli believes. These companies maintain a technological edge, which they can use to produce higher-quality displays than the competition.
They also have the opportunity to engage in mergers and acquisitions to bolster their manufacturing capacity.
