Apple drives growth in high-resolution smartphone displays

While overall smartphone market growth continues to slow, global demand for low temperature polysilicon thin-film-transistor liquid-crystal displays (LTPS TFT LCD) for smartphones is on the rise. Led by Apple’s iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, LTPS TFT LCD smartphone display shipments grew 31 percent in the first half (H1) of 2015 to reach 251 million units. The iPhone displays made up more than half (52 percent) of all LTPS TFT LCD smartphone display shipments in H1 2015, according to IHS.

LTPS TFT LCD is used in Apple’s iPhone and other high-end smartphones that have full high definition (FHD) displays with resolutions of 1920×1080 pixels and in wide quad high definition (WQHD) displays with resolutions of 2560×1440 pixels. Display manufacturers are now investing in new fabs to increase future production capacity, not only for LTPS TFT LCD displays, but also for high-resolution active-matrix organic light emitting diode (AMOLED) displays, according to the IHS Smartphone Display Market Tracker.

“Apple adopted wider displays with higher resolution in its latest iPhone series, which has helped spur demand in LTPS TFT LCD displays,” said Hiroshi Hayase, director of analysis and research for IHS Technology. “Due to strong growth in LTPS TFT LCD for the iPhone, Apple competitors are also now increasing orders of high-resolution displays.”

The IHS Smartphone Display Market Tracker provides a quarterly update on smartphone display shipments, technology development, features trends and smartphone market dynamics. This report also provides quarterly and yearly forecasts of mobile phone display shipments. For information about purchasing this report, contact the sales department at IHS in the Americas at +1 844 301 7334 or ; in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) at +44 1344 328 300 or ; or Asia-Pacific (APAC) at +604 291 3600 or .