When it comes to component manufacturers, we don’t always see the marketshare broken down by supplier. In fact, quite often we don’t even know who made the display on our smartphone, or the battery or the camera. Often times it’s Sharp, Japan Display, or Sony that makes the displays in our smartphones. Unless it’s an AMOLED display, which is made by Samsung. In the next five years, Japan Display is looking pretty optimistic. They are planning to hold a 30-40% market share in high-end smartphone panels within the next five years. This is according to various media reports out of Taiwan. JDI, also known as Japan Display, is also looking to increase its non-smartphone business to US$4.05 billion by 2019. It’s said that reflective-type displays are expected to account for 20% of the business, OLED displays around 40% and vehicle displays at about 40%.
Digitimes Research team says that JDI is expected to surpass Sharp in revenues during the fiscal year 2015, due to the company’s strong presence in China. Along with steady orders from Apple. JDI has also been more successful in working with vendors in China to supply handset panels used in high-end smartphones. While Sharp has also been competing for these same orders, but have seen less than stellar results. Which is just one of many reasons the company incurred major losses in fiscal year 2014.
Xiaomi actually uses both Sharp and JDI panels in their high-end Mi Note Pro. The reason why they use both company’s is so that they don’t run into shortages. With as many phones as Xiaomi sells, that’s definitely something to look out for. Of course, Sharp isn’t JDI’s only competitor for displays, there’s also Samsung. Which we’ve seen more and more companies using Samsung’s AMOLED panels, mainly Motorola. JDI will likely be picking up the most of their market share for high-end devices in China and other parts of Asia. Where Samsung isn’t as big, seeing as Samsung doesn’t use JDI’s displays and sticks with their own. It will be interesting to see if JDI can get to the 40% market share in high-end devices that they want to achieve in 5 years.