DisplaySearch Reports Q306 Small/Medium Display Shipments Reach Record High, But Revenues Drop on Significant Pricing Pressure

DisplaySearch, the worldwide leader in display market research and consulting, has released its Quarterly Small/Medium Shipment and Forecast Report, a comprehensive examination of the small/medium display industry. The Q306 report reveals shipments of 509.5M displays in 16 applications as shown in Table 1. Shipment volume was up 13% Y/Y, led by mobile phones, PDAs, games and multi-function printers (MFPs). MP3s rebounded from a down quarter in Q206 and were up 19%. Much of the growth is a function of the peak holiday season ramp.

The report details display shipments by 55 suppliers and display purchases by over 100 product makers in terms of display technology, size, resolution, color and average selling prices (ASPs) for seven quarters. Value chains are included showing quarterly purchases and shipments between set makers and display makers by application.

Display revenues were $5.5B, up 6% Q/Q, but down 7% Y/Y, due to the continued drop in ASPs. The leading small/medium display makers in terms of revenue were Sharp, Sanyo Epson, TMDisplay, Samsung SDI, and Samsung.

Sharp, which led its closest competitor by almost a factor of 2, was #1 in mobile phones, PDAs, MP3 players and games. Sanyo Epson was in the top five in mobile phones, multi-function printers, electronic viewfinders and digital cameras. TMDisplay was #1 in auto monitors, #4 in mobile phones and #2 in MP3s. Samsung SDI was #3 in mobile phones and #2 in sub-displays. Samsung was #5 in mobile phones, #2 in PDAs and #3 in MP3. The next five leading suppliers in terms of revenue were Hitachi, TPO, Sony, AUO and Wintek.

AMLCDs dominate shipment share by technology with a-Si at 50.0% and p-Si at 29.7%. STN had a total share of 16.4%, which has been falling over the last two years. HTPS and LCOS are competing in electronic viewfinder market, where results were mixed. OLED displays are still in their infancy with PMOLEDs having a 2.1% share and growing, while AMOLED are not expected to ship in volume until Q107.

According to DisplaySearch Senior Vice President Barry Young, 'Small/medium display shipments reached their highest quarter ever, but revenue continues to stall due to the ongoing drops in ASPs. Even with the growing volume in demand for new and existing handheld products, revenues cannot grow due to the large number of suppliers and the growth in TFT LCD capacity. It is likely that consolidation will continue in this market through 2007.'