Samsung remains top smartphone display manufacturer in Q1 2017

The latest market data from industry tracker IHS Markit shows that Samsung retained its position as the world’s top manufacturer of smartphone displays in the first quarter of this year. One of the reasons why the company was able to retain its position is said to be the robust growth in shipments of flexible OLED products.

IHS Markit’s data shows that combined global sales of LCD and OLED displays that are 9 inches or smaller in size raked in $13 billion in sales during the January-March 2017 period. Compared to last year, this was a 35 percent growth.

Samsung Display remained in the lead in this market as it posted sales of $3.5 billion during this period and thus accounted for 27.2 percent of the global market. The combined sales of flexible OLED products accounted for $1.1 billion, doubling year-over-year on the back of the Galaxy S8’s release.

Japan Display followed in second place with 17.8 percent. LG Display and China-based BOE Technology Group came in third and fourth place respectively.

The overall growth in the global smartphone display market is deemed to be significant by industry analysts as the first quarter of a new year is generally considered to be the “off season.” The numbers are certainly impressive.