TrendForce：January large-sized panel shipment dropped 10.4% MoM

According to the latest large-sized panel shipment survey by WitsView, the display research division of the global market intelligence provider TrendForce, the total large-sized panel shipment volume attained 65.16 million units in January 2013, declining 10.4% MoM and jumping 27% YoY.

The LCD TV market entered the slow season for restocking in January 2013, and TV brand clients reduced panel procurement instead to lower inventory in hands, leading to a MoM drop of 5.9% in January TV panel shipment and a shipment volume of 18.64 million units. IT panel market also entered the slow season for purchase, and certain demands had been reflected in advance in Q4 2012, along with year-end financial settlement and stock taking, extending panel procurement adjustment and obviously dragging down the IT panel shipment. Among these, the monitor panel shipment declined 14.4% MoM to a total volume of 12.64 million units. The overall above 10.1” NB panel, including Netbook panels, declined 32.9% MoM to a total volume of 12.61 million units. The tablet shipment continued to grow to 21.26 million units. Although Apple had largely lifted the 9.7” panel procurement at the end of last year and resulted in a huge drop in January orders, Apple held continuously growing demands for 7.9” panels. With the lifting yield at the panel supply chain, the 7.9” panel shipment surged 10% from the previous month.

WitsView’s senior research manager Jeffy Chen further indicates that the tablet application shows diversity, and in addition to being widely used as personal entertainment device, it can combine cloud computing services and enter business and education markets in the future. In addition to the best known brands Apple and Samsung who aggressively attack the tablet market, the demand in the white-box market is also quite active. The reason why the white-box tablet brands can open the market rapidly is to adopt the strategy of the affordable prices and highly mimicking industrial design of best-selling branded products, which is similar to the rise of the knock-off mobile phones.    

Of course, a white-box tablet priced at only $50-$60 shows big differences in panel spec. from brand vendors. Taking the 7” tablet for example, the Google-ASUS Nexus 7 carries a panel resolution spec. of WXGA (1280 * 800) and the IPS/FFS wide viewing angle technology at the same time, with a BLU brightness of 400nits. White-box products, on concern of selling prices and costs, turn to use the panels that were previously equipped to GPS, car devices, and consumer electronics products (electronic photo frame, portable DVD player, etc.). This kind of products most carry panels with resolution of WVGA(800*480), SVGA(800 *600), and WSVGA(1024 * 600) and mainly apply TN panel technology, with BLU brightness mostly between 250-350nits. 

Table 1: Panel spec. differences between white-box product and Nexus 7
Source：WitsView

The emergence of the white-box market means the opening of another wide market for Taiwanese and Chinese panel makers. Previously, Korean-based LG Display and Samsung Display held a combined tablet panel market share as high as 60%-70%, mainly because Korean makers have cultivated deeply in IPS wide viewing technology for a long time and showed stable mass-production yield, attracting Apple as their major client and fully supporting tablet developments of their respective brands in the groups. But based on WitsView’s statistics data, Korean makers’ combined tablet panel shipment dropped to around 40% in January mainly on Apple’s significant reduction in the panel demand. Taiwanese and Chinese makers’ combined market shares attained 42% and 15% mainly on the gains in the white-box tablet market, largely lifting the market shares.  

WitsView’s latest global tablet panel shipment data for January shows that TN panels accounted for 40% of the overall tablet panel shipment. And among the overall TN tablet panels, the 7” product remained the mainstream and accounted for 75%-80% of the market, with 8”, 9”, 9.7”, and 10.1” on the side. For the panel resolution, WVGA (800 * 480) held a large portion of the market, controlling a penetration rate of 60%.

Chart 1: TFT-LCD Panel Shipment in Jan-13 (K units)

Source：WitsView