Telecom Lead Asia: LG Display leads the tablet displays market in the first quarter with 42 percent share.
Samsung Display is in second position with 38 percent shipment market share.
Samsung and LG make the liquid crystal display (LCD) panels for the Apple iPad, which dominates the media tablet space with 58 percent market share in the first quarter.
Besides supplying to Apple, LGD also furnishes display panels to Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
Samsung provides panels to its internal tablet division.
Apart from capacity expansion, Samsung and LG are also investing for developing wide-viewing-angle technologies like in-plane switching (IPS) and fringe-field switching (FFS). Both LGD and Samsung Display are also looking to convert amorphous-silicon fabs into making oxide silicon panels to help improve tablet panel resolution, power consumption and overall performance.
Other LCD panel suppliers — Japanese suppliers such as Sharp, Japan Display and Panasonic are actively targeting the tablet panel market by dedicating capacity at their Generation 6 and Generation 8 fabs in order to make tablet panels.
LCD suppliers based in Taiwan, such as AU Optronics and ChiMei Innolux, are adjusting their business models—some to focus on tablets for the education sector, and others to supply tablets for the white-box market in China.
Meanwhile, shipments of the iPad with its 9-inch screen, as well as 7.x-inch models from various brands will drive the tablet display market in 2012 to grow at 56 percent, according to IHS.
Shipments of tablet displays this year are projected to reach 126.6 million units, up from 82.1 million units in 2011.
“While the 9-inch segment dominated by the iPad will account for the majority of tablet display shipments this year, the fastest-growing portion of the market will the 7.x-inch screens used in products like the Galaxy Tab from Samsung Electronics, the Kindle Fire from Amazon, the Nook Tablet from Barnes & Noble, and other tablet products using the Google Android operating system,” said Vinita Jakhanwal, director for Small & Medium Displays at IHS.
Shipments for tablet displays declined 20 percent sequentially in the first quarter due to seasonal trends.
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IHS iSuppli Figure: Worldwide Tablet Panel Display Shipment Forecast by Size (Millions of Units) |
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2011 |
2012 |
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| 5.x-inch | 0.9 | 0.3 | |
| 7.x-inch | 20.8 | 41.1 | |
| 8.x-inch | 5.2 | 10.9 | |
| 9.x-inch | 55.2 | 74.3 | |
| Total | 82.1 | 126.6 | |
| Source: IHS iSuppli Research, September 2012 | |||
Total tablet panel shipments in the second quarter reached 27 million units, up nearly 30 percent from 21 million units in the first quarter.
