As China makers expand production capacity in order to meet increasing demand for cheaper panel supply in China, local handset vendors will receive Full HD panels for use in smartphones in 2015 below US$21, down 11.5% on year, according to Digitimes Research.
Additionally, the makers will provide HD panels as low as US$11 and WVGA panels at US$3, down 10% and 25% on year, respectively.
In terms of Full HD panel production, most of the supply will come from BOE's and Tianma Microelectronics' 5.5G lines while that for entry-level and mid-range units will come from 6G lines. Production expansion began in 2013 and has been increasing since, with more breakthroughs expected to happen in 2015.
BOE in particular has seen demand for HD handset panels increase, which will account for over 30% of its total handset panel shipments by the end of 2014 and later past 40% in 2015. Tianma meanwhile will see its proportion of Full HD handset panels increase to 6.5% in 2015 and China-based InfoVision Optoelectronics (IVO) will see its proportion of entry-level handset panel shipments on its 5G a-Si TFT LCD fab account for 35.4% of total handset panel shipments by the end of 2015.
Digitimes Research added that China vendors hope to further drop pricing for mid-range smartphones in 2014 to less than CNY800 (US$130) - the current pricing - and will also aim to have CNY400 and below entry-level smartphones available for third- and fourth-tier China cities in addition to various emerging markets.
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