Taiwan makers' shipments of touch panels used in handset and notebook applications increased 21% and 33.9% respectively in the fourth quarter of 2015, according to Digitimes Research. Shipments for tablet applications increased only 4.7% due to weak product demand from customers, except Amazon.
The tablet market has been shrinking and overall shipments for Apple tablet products 10-inch and below have been weakening. China vendors have also seen their white-box tablet sales decline, which has put a strain on tablet touch panel orders to China.
Makers outside of Greater China meanwhile also saw strong handset touch panel shipments in the fourth quarter, surpassing Taiwan makers with overall 28.5% sequential growth, largely as a result of orders from Apple and Samsung Electronics.
In terms of technology, demand for on-cell used in various applications has been on the rise, with Taiwan makers' overall shipments of the technology growing 28.5% on quarter during the fourth quarter. Innolux, HannStar Display and Chunghwa Picture Tubes (CPT) have all strengthened their presence in the market, with Innolux bumping up shipments to customers such as Motorola and Asustek. CPT and HannStar meanwhile increased shipments to ZTE, Coolpad and TCL for handset applications.
Digitimes Research also noted that China makers' shipments of glass touch panels for handset applications saw only 16.7% growth due to rising demand for touch embedded applications.
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