Samsung Display Tops Global Smartphone OLED Market Share in Q1 Dominating Combined Top Chinese Rivals Amid Seasonal Slump and Rising Component Prices
Samsung Display once again topped the worldwide smartphone OLED panel market for Q1. TheElec reported that the Korean maker took up a market share of 44.4%. This was an increase of 0.6 percentage points more than the total of 43.8% accounted for by the top 4 Chinese companies BOE Visionox Tianma and TCL CSOT combined. Global shipment volumes dropped 12% y o y to 190 million units.
Market contraction was caused by a usual seasonal slump after the holidays and a jump in memory prices forcing smartphone makers to cut their output. Samsung Display's market share was 42.8% a year ago so it was less impacted than other players and its shipment figures fell far less sharply than market averages even though its volumes also decreased. LG Display's market share grew to 9% from 7.6% a year ago and it is expected to gain more volume as its high end mobile display supply is steady.
Individual performance within China greatly varied. BOE accounted for 16.3% share, China's second highest. The market share of Visionox jumped up to 10.7% whereas those of Tianma and TCL CSOT fell to 9% and 7.8%. The four top Chinese suppliers together took an 17% decline in shipments over the last 12 months while Korean suppliers only dipped 7% in terms of market share. Increasing prices for the required components were said to have heavily impact the Chinese makers, forcing them to have more drastic production cuts than Korean suppliers.
The drop in memory prices had created a competitive tilt in favor of incumbents and Korean suppliers were not hit as much, with Chinese manufacturers making more output adjustments based on pricing related circumstances, according to UBI Research analysts. Shipment volume was down 20% QoQ as it enters a traditional dull period for the hardware supply chain.
