iPhone killers are lifesavers for display demand

EL SEGUNDO, USA: The new generation of so-called “iPhone killers” is set to drive demand and increase sales of displays commonly used in smartphones in 2009, despite an expected decline in the overall mobile-phone display market this year, according to iSuppli Corp.

Worldwide shipments of mobile-phone LCD displays between 2.5-inches and 4.9- inches in size diagonally, and with pixel formats of QVGA and higher, are projected to rise to 149.9 million units in 2009, up an impressive 22.1 percent from 122.8 million in 2008. In contrast, overall shipments of all mobile phone displays are expected to decline by 11 percent for the year.

The figure presents iSuppli’s worldwide shipment for LCD displays sized between 2.5-inches and 4.9 inches diagonally, and with pixel formats of QVGA and higher.

iSuppli: Global Forecast of Unit Shipments of Displays From 2.5-Inches to 4.9-Inches in Size with Pixel Formats QVGA and Higher (Thousands of Units)Source: iSuppli, Aug. 2009

While a large number of smart phones use smaller displays and LCDs with other pixel formats, these displays are most likely to be used in high-end, feature-rich products. Thus, their growth provides an accurate picture of growth in smartphone display demand.

“The continued success of Apple Inc.’s iPhone is driving market demand for competitive products,” said Vinita Jakhanwal, principal analyst for small and medium displays at iSuppli.

“Companies are rolling out a range of iPhone killers, including new products based on Google’s Android operating system. To this end, many OEMs are introducing higher-end, multimedia-enabled phones that include larger displays with superior resolutions.”

The rising demand for smart-phone-oriented displays and the continued strength in demand from the Chinese mobile phone makers are helping propel a recovery in the mobile phone display market, with sequential growth starting in the second quarter, after two consecutive quarter of decline.

Normal seasonal factors, combined with the continued economic downturn and large inventories, caused overall shipments to decline sequentially by 17.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008 and by 8.5 percent in the first quarter of 2009.

In the second quarter, shipments actually slowed in May compared to April due to a shortage of components such as driver ICs and LCD glass. However, most of this shortage, particularly for driver ICs, was resolved by June, allowing mobile-phone display shipments to rise by 4.6 percent in the second quarter.

“Early indicators from the Taiwanese small/medium suppliers are pointing to a strong third-quarter performance,” Jakhanwal said.

“The Taiwanese vendors are significant suppliers to the Chinese mobile phone makers for both the branded and clone markets. Incentives from the Chinese government have helped boost demand for consumer electronics, including cell phones, in rural China. The government is looking at expanding this program further.”

The third quarter is usually the strongest period of the year, as panels are shipped to meet the end-year holiday demand for electronic devices. Strong demand is expected from Tier-1 handset OEMs in this quarter, too. However, uncertainty in consumer demand persists. If mobile-phone sales fail to pick up the fourth quarter, oversupply in the mobile phone display market could build up.

Genoa Pixcale reduces power by 40pc for smartphone displays

HERZLIYA, ISRAEL: Genoa Color Technologies announced Pixcale technology to address the twin challenge of delivering longer battery life and vivid TV-quality color on high-resolution mobile phone displays.

The company’s customized implementation of its patented multi-primary technology lets mobile handset makers reduce the power consumed in phone displays by 40 percent, while providing improved image appearance, incurring virtually no increase in cost.

Genoa’s multi-primary technology, while new to the smartphone market, is already fully developed, proven, and implemented in digital projectors, and in numerous LCD TV panels.

“A steady increase in screen size and resolution, phone features, and mobile applications has placed progressively greater power demands on phone batteries. As such, the industry is facing an acute problem, desperately looking for ways to reduce mobile device power consumption,” said Ilan Ben-David, CEO of Genoa Color Technologies.

“By adopting our Pixcale technology, handset makers can improve the total battery life of a mobile device by 15 percent. This not only benefits service providers looking to monetize airtime, it also benefits end-user adopters of rich-media applications and content.”

"Genoa's solution has strong market potential for two key reasons. First, the company is targeting the fastest growing segments in the mobile phone market, i.e., smart phones and high end feature phones,” said Chris Crotty, Director, Small and Medium Displays, DisplaySearch. “Second, Genoa's solution is minimally disruptive to a supply chain that is sometimes resistant to technological advances."

The display module consumes 50% of the typical smartphone power budget, making such significant power reduction in the display module exceedingly attractive to handset makers. Genoa’s multi-primary technology offers a 35-50 percent backlight power savings in mobile device display modules. And because the added color filters represent only 4 percent of the total cost of Genoa’s solution, the cost impact to manufacturers is negligible.

Genoa’s multi-primary technology augments standard RGB displays with a richer color palette comprised of RGBCY (red, green, blue, cyan, and yellow), resulting in a more vivid and natural display of media content. The technology offers better brightness efficiency, through careful filter selection and through Genoa’s Pixcale algorithms. The result is improved image performance and ambient light viewing for mobile content consumers.

Pixcale is based on established LCD manufacturing processes. Genoa’s plans to license the Pixcale technology to handset makers, allowing them to access their existing supply chain of LCD manufacturers for the displays.