Smartphone market: Android does not dominate and touch panel makers are extremely happy

The Institute for Industry and Information Technology (MIC) estimates that global smartphone shipments will reach 277 million units in 2010, and it will grow to 365 million units in 2011 with an annual growth rate of 32%. It is expected to reach 2014 by 2014. The scale of 622 million units. Among them, the Android platform has shipped 46 million units in 2010, and surpassed Apple’s iOS with a market share of 16.6%. It is expected that in 2013, the Android platform will have shipments of 130 million units and a market share of 24%. Replace Symbian and become the world's largest smartphone operating system.

According to MIC's observation, the current application of smart phones is facing the competition between tablet devices and other mobile Internet terminal products. In order to continuously consolidate and expand the market scale, the product specifications in the next two years will be oriented towards more friendly operation interfaces and more suitable for mobile games and multimedia. The application of the development of the platform, which in the low-power, based on improving the computing performance will be the biggest challenge.

Overall, the specification change of smart phones includes three aspects. First, in order to increase computing resources, the 1.2GHz dual-core application processor will become the basic equipment for high-end models in 2011, and will continue to increase to 1.5 in 2012. GHz dual-core or multi-core platform; Secondly, in order to meet the needs of reducing power consumption and improving image performance at the same time, the importance of graphics processors will increase day by day, driving the chip and IP industry to actively develop or import a complete solution for graphics processors.

Finally, the operating system is able to individually meet the needs of high-end models and low-cost models, platform operators will push two different versions of the response, including high-end versions include MeeGo, Android 3. x and Windows Phone 7, the low-end version includes Symbian^3, Android 2. x and Windows Mobile 6.5.

According to Lin Boqi, senior industry analyst at SMC, the high-end models will continue to be the mainstay of the industry's shipments, based on the overlap of smart phone functions and tablet devices. With the advent of platforms, factors such as the willingness of the telecommunications industry in mature countries to remain strong will all be powerful support.

As for the market size of low-end models, it is expected that there will be more significant development since 2012, mainly due to the modular design of low-end operating systems, the continued popularity of smart phones in mature countries, and the opening of 3G services in developing countries. The catalytic effect of the factor.

In terms of the competition situation among international brand manufacturers, the market share of Nokia and RIM is expected to decline from 36.1% and 16.6% in 2010 to 30.0% and 14.7% respectively in 2012. The market share of Apple will be 14.4 percent in 2010. % grows to 18.4% in 2012. As Android advocates HTC, Samsung, and Motorola, market share will grow from 9.0%, 5.1%, and 4.3% in 2010 to 10.3%, 8.5%, and 6.1% in 2012, respectively. .

Among them, the Android platform has a high degree of customization, and manufacturers with advanced advantages will continue to take a leading position. On the contrary, Windows Phone 7, which has less value-added space for manufacturers, is more likely to have a long list of products due to a small gap in product performance. The situation.

For Taiwanese manufacturers, MIC believes that because mid- to high-end products are still the mainstream of the market at the current stage, brand owners tend to develop in-house and prioritize their own production capacity and do not easily release external orders, but as the low-end product market begins to expand, global smartphones ODM orders are expected to reach a scale of 57 million units in 2012. They are more likely to be released by Motorola, a maker of computer system brands, and a local brand manufacturer in mainland China. This is particularly worthy of follow-up attention.

Market demand for smart phone panels is the key to smart phone panels. MIC estimates that Taiwanese panel makers can deploy Fringe Field Switching (FFS) and emerging display technology (AMOLED) in 2011. In the mass production stage, the future market share in the global smartphone panel market will also have room for improvement.

After the restriction of network bandwidth was lifted, mobile phones increasingly emphasized the consumption demands of the audio and video functions, which greatly increased the business opportunities for consumers to use mobile phones to enjoy the contents of the animation. Therefore, the function of wide viewing angle and outdoor visibility was particularly important. The development trend of wide viewing angle technology has also been concerned by various parties. The main panel suppliers are South Korea's LGD and Japanese panel makers; and the emerging display technology AMOLED has become a lot of mobile phones due to outstanding performance in contrast, color saturation, and reaction speed. The panel makers favored the big manufacturers. The main supplier is SMD (Samsung Mobile Display).

According to Xie Peifen, a senior industry analyst at SMC, the future panel specifications will play a role in the future, in addition to the difference in operating systems in the world where the proportion of smart phone market is constantly rising and the space for hardware function differentiation is getting smaller and smaller. The key role of sales or not.

Since "touch" has become an essential specification for smart phones, and glass-projected capacitive touch panel technology is the mainstream, it accounts for more than 50% of projected capacitive touch-control devices. At present, most of the glass products are provided by professional touch panel manufacturers. However, TFT panel and color filter manufacturers have already actively entered, and TFT panel suppliers further provide integrated touch panel products to customers through panel supply conditions. Competing against professional touch panel manufacturers, leading professional touch panel manufacturers must consider moving toward more specialized areas or seeking strategic alliances and become a topic worthy of sustained attention in the future.

According to the MIC analysis of the CSI, smart phone panels all emphasize high-definition, so most LTPS panels are used. Although panel makers in Taiwan and South Korea continue to increase LTPS production capacity in the future, LTPS panel production capacity will continue to be partially shut down by Japanese manufacturers. Affected, it is estimated that the growth rate in 2011 will be 13%, but for the global demand for smart phone panels, it will still show a state of tight production capacity.

Although manufacturers of mobile phone brands can also choose AMOLED panels, since only SMD can supply stably, and the 5.5th generation line must be put into production in the second half of 2011, to switch to a larger generation production line, both AMOLED process and equipment must be adjusted. Whether it can actually increase production capacity significantly, its yield problem will still be a threshold. South Korea's LGD and Taiwan's panel makers will also be mass-produced in 2011, but production capacity is still small, so AMOLED's panel supply capacity will affect the market penetration rate.