Due to the wide variety of new mobile phone models with multimedia capabilities vying to attract the interest of consumers, iSuppli Corp. forecasts mobile handset displays will reach 1.2 billion unit shipments in 2006, up 17 percent from 1.05 billion in 2005.

"The convergence of voice, data, multimedia and personal-information-management capabilities is expanding in mobile phones and the handset industry is readying itself to offer products with these visually intensive features," said Vinita Jakhanwal, principal analyst for mobile displays at iSuppli. "This, in turn, is driving the demand for advanced mobile displays from OEMs that want to offer these capabilities.

"Because of this, iSuppli forecasts that mobile-display shipments will continue to grow in 2007, with 1.3 billion shipped, up 4 percent from the 1.2 billion mobile displays shipped this year as replacement unit sales and new subscriber growth remain relatively steady compared to 2006," Jakhanwal noted.

Monochrome turning red
According to iSuppli, color main displays accounted for 74 percent of the total mobile handset display market in 2005 and will likely comprise nearly 77 percent of the market in 2006. This number will grow to nearly 98 percent by 2010 as virtually every handset will be equipped with at least one type of color display. Monochrome displays will still exist, but will be used as secondary screens in mobile handsets.

For the TFT-LCD, color STN-LCD and monochrome STN-LCD displays, iSuppli's 2006 unit growth forecast is 58 percent, 20 percent and 20 percent, respectively. Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED) main displays will represent a mere 1 percent of the main display market this year. By 2010, this mix will change, with TFT-LCDs representing 87 percent of the market, monochrome and color STN-LCDs comprising only 4 percent of shipments and 9 percent of the market being served by OLED main displays.

Growing demand for mobile TFT-LCDs
Demand for mobile TFT-LCD panels in the handset market is driven by rapid drops in prices and growth in the camera phone and higher-end handset markets. This demand is being supported by the increased availability of the panels because older fabrication facilities that previously made large-sized LCDs now are free for making smaller-size products. The availability of TFT-LCDs will also play a role in helping launch the digital video broadcasting format in Asia and Europethat will enable television to be watched on handsets.

Furthermore, TFT-LCDs will have a greater appeal when Third Generation (3G) bandwidth becomes viable, enabling mobile handsets to become sleeker and slimmer and yet being able to display more visual content.

Open your OLEDs
While TFT-LCDs will thrive in the mobile handset display market in the coming years, overall mobile OLED panel shipments will slowly climb to reach 47 million units shipped in 2006, up from 32 million units in 2005. The largest growth area for mobile-phone OLEDs will be in the main display market, where iSuppli forecasts shipments will grow to 160 million units by 2012, up from a mere 13.7 million units in 2006.

The OLED display markets are dominated by Passive Matrix OLEDs (PMOLEDs). But because PMOLEDs will become a stagnant revenue source beginning in 2008, the growth of mobile OLED displays will depend upon the adoption and viability of Active Matrix OLEDs (AMOLEDs). As AMOLED manufacturing becomes established, it will account for more than 20 percent of the OLED display units shipped by 2009 and about 40 percent of OLED display units shipped by 2012.

This growth will occur mostly through penetration into the mobile phone main display market, although some units also will serve the portable media player and digital still camera markets.

For more information about the mobile handset display market, see Jakhanwal's latest report, Mobile Handset Display Shipments: 1.2 Billion Units in 2006. For more information, please visit: http://www.isuppli.com/catalog/detail.asp?id=8060 

Learn more at iSuppli's Flat Information Displays Conference
A detailed analysis of the small/medium display market will be presented at iSuppli's Flat Information Displays (FID) North America 2006 Conference, to be held in at the San Jose Marriott, from Nov. 8 through 10 in San Jose, Calif.For more information on FID 2006, please visit: http://www.isuppli.com/fid2006/

For more information, please contact:
Jonathan Cassell
Editorial Director and Manager, Public Relations
iSuppli Corporation
Office: 408.654.1714
Mobile: 408.921.3754
www.isuppli.com