Revenue from mobile device displays to surpass televisions for first time in 2014

Posted:
in General Discussion edited April 2014
Display manufacturers will make more money in 2014 from the screens found in mobile phones, tablets, and laptop computers than those in television sets for the first time as consumers increasingly demand higher-quality displays in mobile devices, according to new data.

Source: NPD DisplaySearch Quarterly Worldwide FPD Shipment and Forecast Report
Source: NPD DisplaySearch Quarterly Worldwide FPD Shipment and Forecast Report


Mobile displays are expected to account for 42 percent of the flat panel display industry's 2014 revenue compared to just 37 percent for LCD televisions, knocking television out of the pole position it has held since 2006. The prediction came in a Tuesday report from industry watchers NPD DisplaySearch.

"With strong growth in tablet PCs, high-end notebooks, and smartphones - especially high resolution and wide-viewing angle displays -- mobile devices are leading the growth of the FPD industry," NPD DisplaySearch executive David Hsieh said. "Mobile devices are expected to expand their revenue lead over LCD TV in the years to come, accounting for nearly half of all FPD revenue by 2016."

Part of the blame rests with the declining sales of large televisions, or those with displays over 40 inches diagonally. Sales of television panels are expected to drop by $4 billion year-over-year while mobile panels will likely increase by a comparable amount.

The shift -- arguably begun when Apple introduced the Retina display alongside the iPhone 4 -- has caused many Asian panel manufacturers to change their focus from producing large television panels to smaller mobile device panels.

"The FPD industry is becoming increasingly dominated by smart handheld applications," Hsieh added.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 7
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    IMO, TV can't die fast enough. Anyone catch a glimpse of CNN recently? Good lord, what a wasteland that channel has become.
  • Reply 2 of 7
    why do analysts insist on using these awful graphs?
  • Reply 3 of 7
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    And yet profits for mobile phones surpassed profits for televisions in 1989¡
  • Reply 4 of 7
    mpantonempantone Posts: 2,033member

    That may be the case, but the discussion here is about one component within a mobile telephone, not the finished handset itself.

  • Reply 5 of 7
    jungmarkjungmark Posts: 6,926member
    "Part of the blame rests with the declining sales of large televisions, or those with displays over 40 inches diagonally. "

    Yup, sounds like a market Apple wants to get involved in. /s

    I think I hear Gene Munster's head imploding.
  • Reply 6 of 7
    my view is that with a $499 device and a decent set of headphones, you got your TV with you all the time. So people will forgo the 'TV in every room' model, to 1 'Theater' TV and hand me down iPads.

    TVs refresh every 7-15 years. mobile every 3. The cost about the same ($400-$800) for the great majority of the phone and TV market (32-55 in). simple math tells me that this is for real (why it took till now is that for the past 8 years, the conversion to HD TVs has artificially inflated TV sales (remember every hotel room is a tv for rent, every VidConf room at work, etc.
    So they had to cycle through as well.

    But at this point, until TVs have another quantum in technology (4K broadcast capabilities over the Internet) or packaging (screen weights drop by 50% again, for example). It's a simple race to the bottom.
  • Reply 7 of 7
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    Bleep.
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