Category Archives: Touch Technologies

Due to increasing capacity from China, South Korean LCD panel makers are quickly realizing that LCD displays profitability may eventually erode, due to growing capacity and price competition from China, so they are betting their future on organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays. Because of lower profit margins and slowing market growth, the IT display category has become the first product line that LCD display manufacturers are quitting, according to IHS Markit (Nasdaq: INFO), a world leader in critical information, analytics and solutions.

Samsung Display was the first company to do so, selling a fifth generation (Gen 5) fabrication plant (fab) to a Chinese touch and module maker last year. In the future, more fab restructuring is expected, especially the facilities dedicated to making IT panels. 

“Brands like HP and Lenovo expected notebook panels to be in a surplus situation, and they were therefore keeping their panel inventories at very low levels,” said Jason Hsu, senior principal analyst, IHS Markit. “This shift from Samsung Display could cause some brands to experience panel shortages in the third quarter of 2016.”

BOE to possibly double its panel shipments this year

Samsung Display delivered 30 million notebook panels in 2015, according to the latest information from the IHS Markit Tablet and Notebook Display Market Tracker. With the company’s latest fab reorganization plan, notebook PC LCD panel shipments could fall to 12 million units in 2016 and to 4 million in 2017. There will be an 18 million-unit gap this year, which means brands might not be able to find other sources to keep up with production needs.

When reviewing the supply chain mix in the first quarter of 2016, it is clear that HP has been affected by these changes more than other companies, with shipments from Samsung Display down from 1.1 million units in first quarter to 350,000 units in the second quarter. However, HP has shifted its orders to other panel makers to secure enough panels for its production needs, for example, Innolux.

BOE is another panel maker benefitting from the exit of Samsung Display from this market. Panel shipments from BOE increased from 4.9 million units in the first quarter to 7.2 million in the second quarter. BOE is expected to grow its notebook business to more than 36 million units in 2017. BOE first began to supply panels for notebooks in 2009, and it has now become one of the largest IT panel suppliers. Furthermore, BOE has a Gen8 fab in Chongqing, China — near the world’s largest notebook production base. In fact, notebook panel shipments from the Chongqing fab are expected to grow quickly next year, thanks to the more efficient logistics.

Chinese and Taiwanese makers to increase unit shipments of premium panels 

LG Display and Samsung Display used to supply Apple with notebook panels; however, the fab re-organization — especially the reallocation of oxide capacity — has increased Apple’s concerns about a potential panel shortage and possible low yields. For this reason, Apple is expected to add another panel supplier for its new MacBook Pro, to diversify the risk from Samsung Display business changes. For its legacy MacBook Air line of notebook PCs, Apple is considering diversifying its supply chain to Chinese makers, which is the first time Apple will use LCD panels from China.

Samsung Display’s exit from the LCD display business has also affected the supply of wide-view-angle in-plane switching (IPS) and plane-to-line switching (PLS) displays. Samsung Display has been one of the major suppliers to offer wide-view-angle panels, and its shipment volume is second only to LG Display.

In order to source IPS and PLS panels, brands must find other sources to replace Samsung Display, after the company begins to reduce production. AUO is one of the qualified candidates, and apparently it is receiving more orders from notebook PC brands. AUO, Innolux and other Taiwanese manufacturers and BOE and other Chinese suppliers are all expanding IPS panels to respond to increasing panel requirements.

The Society for Information Display (SID) announced today the designation of a new award to honor the outstanding contributions of young researchers to the advancements of active matrix addressed information displays. The Peter Brody Prize will be awarded to a young researcher under age 40 who has made outstanding contributions in innovating the design and enhancing the performance of active matrix addressed information displays.

The award is named after the late professor Dr. Peter Brody, who was the pioneer of active matrix thin film transistors for information displays.

Dr. Brody demonstrated the world’s-first working CdSe TFT-EL and TFT-LCD panels in 1973 and 1974, respectively. He was the pioneer and great advocate for active matrix addressed information displays. He led a pilot line manufacturing TFT-EL panels at Westinghouse and commercial-scale manufacturing of TFT-LCD panels at Panelvision in 1980. He continued to develop low-cost TFT backplane technologies at Magnascreen and Advantech until the end of his life.

Dr. Brody was an SID Fellow and received the Karl Ferdinand Braun Prize from SID in 1987 for his outstanding technical achievement and contribution to information displays. He was also honored with the Rank Prize in optoelectronics (UK), the Eduard Rhein Prize (Germany), the IEEE Jun-Ichi Nishizawa Metal and thee NAE Charles Stark Draper Prize.

The Peter Brody Prize will recognize a young researcher, under the age of 40, for major contributions, which enhance the performance of active matrix addressed displays. It is the intention of the prize to recognize young researchers who have made ‘major-impact’ technical contributions to the developments of active matrix addressed displays in one or more of the following areas:

  • thin film transistor devices
  • active matrix addressing techniques
  • active matrix device manufacturing
  • active matrix display media
  • active matrix display-enabling components

Award recipients have to be less than 40 years of age at the time of nomination; and nominees are not required to be a member of SID.

Winners of the Peter Brody Prize will receive a $2,000 stipend, made possible through a generous grant of $40,000 from Dr. Fang-Chen Luo. Dr. Luo worked with Dr. Brody at Westinghouse R&D Center demonstrating the first working TFT-EL panel in 1973 and a TFT-LC panel in 1974. He is donating the money to honor Dr. Brody, who was his mentor, as well as to recognize young engineers for their innovative contributions to active matrix addressed information displays. The grant will be used to endow the award in perpetuity.

The award joins the lineup of prestigious honors bestowed by SID to outstanding innovators in the field of information displays, including the Karl Ferdinand Braun Prize for outstanding technical achievement in or contribution to display technology; the Jan Rajchman Prize for outstanding scientific or technical achievement in or contribution to research on flat-panel displays; the Otto Schade Prize for outstanding scientific or technical achievement in or contribution to the advancement of the functional performance and/or image quality of information displays; and, the Slottow-Owaki Prize for outstanding contributions to personnel training in the field of information display.

The deadline for nominations for the 2017 awards is Oct. 15, 2016. For more information on any of the SID Honors and Awards, including how to submit nominations, please visit www.sid.org and click “Awards.”

Applied Materials, Inc. today introduced the display industry’s first high-resolution inline e-beam review (EBR) system, increasing the speed at which manufacturers of OLED and UHD LCD screens can achieve optimum yields and bring new display concepts to market.

Applied is the semiconductor industry leader in EBR with more than 70 percent market share in 2015. The company has combined its leading-edge SEM capabilities used in semiconductor device review with a large-scale display vacuum platform, resulting in an inline EBR technology that is the fastest, most effective method to discover and address the root causes of killer defects in advanced mobile and TV displays.

Applied’s EBR system has received orders from 6 of the top 10 largest display manufacturers in the world and demand is increasing as manufacturers look to quickly and cost effectively optimize their yields and bring new types of displays to market faster.

“Our new EBR system is the latest in a strong pipeline of display products that enables customers to solve critical OLED and LCD manufacturing challenges,” said Ali Salehpour, senior vice president and general manager, Display and Adjacent Markets and Applied Global Services, Applied Materials. “Applied’s unique ability to combine semiconductor yield techniques and panel-level SEM technology expands our addressable market and avoids costly yield excursions for our customers. Emerging applications such as augmented and virtual reality and smart vehicles require better displays with new form factors. These applications are driving demand for solutions like our EBR tool that give customers significant time-to-market advantages.”

“As a worldwide leader in display, Tianma values the strong relationship with Applied Materials to help us develop new technologies required to produce the high-quality, high-performance mobile displays that consumers have come to expect,” said Dr. Jun Ma, vice president, Tianma Micro-electronics Co., Ltd. “Applied’s EBR system will enable us to reduce the start-up time at our Wuhan fab and accelerate our ability to bring more advanced display technologies to market. In addition to EBR, we look forward to working with Applied to introduce other semiconductor yield techniques to mobile display manufacturing.”

Advanced display technologies require an increasing number of process steps resulting in more and smaller contaminates, and new types of defects. Current inline automated optical defect inspection tools for displays are not as effective as SEM analysis in distinguishing killer from non-killer defects, or in determining systematic root causes of defects. Prior to the introduction of Applied’s EBR system, conducting SEM analysis on displays required breaking the glass substrate into pieces and examining each piece separately under a microscope. This is not only costly and time consuming but also makes it nearly impossible to determine the location of the defect on the full panel. Applied solves these limitations by providing inline SEM review at the industry’s highest resolution and throughput without requiring the panel to be broken.

Applied Materials, Inc. (Nasdaq:AMAT) is a leader in materials engineering solutions used to produce virtually every new chip and advanced display in the world.

Applied Materials’ display e-beam review (EBR) system

Applied Materials’ display e-beam review (EBR) system

Unique optical features of quantum dots make them an attractive tool for many applications, from cutting-edge displays to medical imaging. Physical, chemical or biological properties of quantum dots must, however, be adapted to the desired needs. Unfortunately, up to now quantum dots prepared by chemical methods could be functionalized using copper-based click reactions with retention of their luminescence. This obstacle can be ascribed to the fact that copper ions destroy the ability of quantum dots to emit light. Scientists from the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IPC PAS) in Warsaw and the Faculty of Chemistry of the Warsaw University of Technology (FC WUT) have shown, however, that zinc oxide (ZnO) quantum dots prepared by an original method developed by them, after modification by the click reaction with the participation of copper ions, fully retain their ability to emit light.

“Click reactions catalyzed by copper cations have long attracted the attention of chemists dealing with quantum dots. The experimental results, however, were disappointing: after modification, the luminescence was so poor that they were just not fit for use. We were the first to demonstrate that it is possible to produce quantum dots from organometallic precursors in a way they do not lose their valuable optical properties after being subjected to copper-catalysed click reactions,” says Prof. Janusz Lewinski (IPC PAS, FC WUT).

Quantum dots are crystalline structures with size of a few nanometers (billionth parts of a meter). As semiconductor materials, they exhibit a variety of interesting features typical of quantum objects, including absorbing and emitting radiation of only a strictly defined energy. Since atoms interact with light in a similar way, quantum dots are often called artificial atoms. In some respects, however, quantum dots offer more possibilities than atoms. Optical properties of each dot actually depend on its size and the type of material from which it is formed. This means that quantum dots may be precisely designed for specific applications.

To meet the need of specific applications, quantum dots have to be tailored in terms of physico-chemical properties. For this purpose, chemical molecules with suitable characteristics are attached to their surface. Due to the simplicity, efficacy, and speed of the process, an exceptionally convenient method is the click reaction. Unfortunately, one of the most widely used click reactions takes place with the participation of copper ions, which was reported to result in the almost complete quenching of the luminescence of the quantum dots.

“Failure is usually a result of the inadequate quality of quantum dots, which is determined by the synthesis method. Currently, ZnO dots are mainly produced by the sol-gel method from inorganic precursors. Quantum dots generated in this manner are coated with a heterogeneous and probably leaky protective shell, made of various sorts of chemical molecules. During a click reaction, the copper ions are in direct contact with the surface of quantum dots and quench the luminescence of the dot, which becomes completely useless,” explains Dr. Agnieszka Grala (IPC PAS), the first author of the article in the Chemical Communications journal.

For several years, Prof. Lewinski’s team has been developing alternative methods for the preparation of high quality ZnO quantum dots. The method presented in this paper affords the quantum dots derived from organozinc precursors. Composition of the nanoparticles can be programmed at the stage of precursors preparation, which makes it possible to precisely control the character of their organic-inorganic interface.

“Nanoparticles produced by our method are crystalline and all have almost the same size. They are spherical and have characteristics of typical quantum dots. Every nanoparticle is stabilized by an impermeable protective jacket, built of organic compounds, strongly anchored on the surface of the semiconductor core. As a result, our quantum dots remain stable for a long time and do not aggregate, that is clump together, in solutions,” describes Malgorzata Wolska-Pietkiewicz, a PhD student at FC WUT.

“The key to success is producing a uniform stabilizing shell. Such coatings are characteristic of the ZnO quantum dots obtained by our method. The organic layer behaves as a tight protective umbrella protecting dots from direct influence of the copper ions,” says Dr. Grala and clarifies: “We carried out click reaction known as alkyne-azide cycloaddition, in which we used a copper(l) compound as catalysts. After functionalization, our quantum dots shone as brightly as at the beginning.”

Quantum dots keep finding more and more applications in various industrial processes and as nanomarkers in, among others, biology and medicine, where they are combined with biologically active molecules. Nanoobjects functionalized in this manner are used to label both individual cells as well as whole tissues. The unique properties of quantum dots also enable long-term monitoring of the labelled item. Commonly used quantum dots, however, contain toxic heavy metals, including cadmium. In addition, they clump together in solutions, which supports the thesis of the lack of tightness of their shells. Meanwhile, the ZnO dots produced by Prof. Lewinski’s group are non-toxic, they do not aggregate, and can be bound to many chemical compounds – so they are much more suitable for medical diagnosis and for imaging cells and tissues.

Research on the methods of production of functionalized ZnO quantum dots was carried out under an OPUS grant from the Poland’s National Science Centre.

TouchSystems, a provider of professional-grade touch display and digital signage solutions, announced today the latest generation of its P-Series large format touch displays. The 46-inch P4630P-3 touch display is designed for 24/7 operation and features 10-point multi-touch projected capacitive (PCAP) touch technology, OPS compatibility, built-in thermal management, speakers and more in a bezel-free chassis.

The new P4630P-3 features NECs energy efficient LED edge-lighting technology and programmable run time increasing efficiency. The zero-bezel integrated PCAP sensor provides fast touch response without adding bulk. Paired with an optional OPS device, customers will benefit from reduced installation costs and reduced cost of ownership in an aesthetically pleasing complete solution.

The P4630P-3 is ideal for high-traffic areas such as public use terminals, retail outlets, hospitality, kiosks, and healthcare facilities. The display features internal temperature sensors with self-diagnostics and fan-based technology for increased protection against overheating to maximize the lifetime of the investment.

Adding to the display performance, the P4630P-3 features integrated Open Pluggable Specification (OPS) compatibility for best-in-class connectivity. Customers can easily install the media player of their choice without the need for additional brackets, cable management, or related hardware, further reducing implementation costs and providing for cleaner installation.

“This is the ideal product for wide variety of interactive applications,” Said Carol Nordin, President of TouchSystems. “Designed for versatility and ease of integration, featuring durable bezel free PCAP touch technology, 24/7 operation, energy efficient LED backlighting, multiple mounting options and so much more.”

To bolster the high-performance of the P4630P-3 multi-touch display features a 3-year parts and labor warranty that includes the backlight.

Although liquid-crystal display (LCD) has dominated mobile phone displays for more than 15 years, organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display technology is set to become the leading smartphone display technology in 2020, according to IHS Markit (Nasdaq: INFO). AMOLED displays with a low-temperature polysilicon (LTPS) backplane will account for more than one-third (36 percent) of all smartphone displays shipped in 2020, becoming the most-used display technology in smartphone displays, surpassing a-Si (amorphous silicon) thin-film transistor (TFT) LCD and LTPS TFT LCD displays.

“While OLED is currently more difficult to manufacture, uses more complicated materials and chemical processes, and requires a keen focus on yield-rate management, it is an increasingly attractive technology for smartphone brands,” said David Hsieh, senior director, IHS Markit. “OLED displays are not only thinner and lighter than LCD displays, but they also boast better color performance and enable flexible display form factors that can lead to more innovative design.”

Samsung Electronics has already adopted OLED displays in its smartphone models, and there is also increasing demand from Chinese Huawei, OPPO, Vivo, Meizu and other smartphone brands. Apple is also now widely expected to use OLED displays in its upcoming iPhone models.

At one time, OLED displays were entirely glass-based and in terms of performance, there was little difference between LCD and OLED displays. Now, flexible OLED displays made from thinner and lighter plastic are enabled and have drawn Apple’s attention. “Apple’s upcoming adoption of OLED displays will be a milestone for OLED in the display industry,” Hsieh said.

Samsung Display, LG Display, Sharp, JDI, BOE, Tianma, GVO, Truly, and CSOT are also starting to ramp up their AMOLED manufacturing capacities and devote more resources to technology development. Samsung Display’s enormous sixth-generation A3 AMOLED fab, for example, will enable even more AMOLED displays to reach the market. Global AMOLED manufacturing capacity will increase from 5 million square meters in 2014 to 30 million square meters in 2020.

“Many display manufacturers were investing in LTPS LCD, thinking it would overtake a-Si technology,” Hsieh said. “However, many of the fabs under construction, especially in China, have had to change their plans to add OLED evaporation and encapsulation tools, because OLED penetration has been more rapid than previously expected.”

By Shannon Davis, Web Editor

Kateeva is out to change the way displays are being made, and during Tuesday’s Silicon Innovation Forum keynote, Kateeva President and COO Conor Madigan, PhD, laid out how their YIELDJet inkjet system is making that happen.

In recent years, OLED displays have captured the imagination of the industry because of the materials’ capability to enable new kinds of form factors, specifically flexible displays. One of the compelling characteristics of OLED is designers can make a display on a thin piece of plastic, freeing them from rigid glass.

Another compelling aspect, Madigan explained, is that OLED displays have fewer subcomponents than their LCD counter parts, so manufacturing cost can be lower. And he believes inkjet technology will play a key role in making OLED more affordable. His company, Silicon Valley-based Kateeva, has focused their efforts on developing an inkjet platform for OLED manufacturing called YIELDJet, a completely different style of inkjet system.

Kateeva’s YIELDJet inkjet printing platform.

Kateeva’s YIELDJet inkjet printing platform.

When the concept of flexible OLEDs was first catching on, designers had some significant manufacturing obstacles to overcome, Madigan explained. Designers in R&D were using vacuum-based technique for depositing the films in the OLED structure.

“It was very slow; it required planarization to make a smooth surface, and this didn’t do that well,” said Madigan. “There were many particle defects, and the cost was high.”

Kateeva worked with adapting inkjet technology to this process. Madigan explained that YIELDJet uses individual droplets of ink in a pattern, merges that ink together, and then uses UV lights to cure into a single layer, which has improved the quality of the films.

“Nowadays, we’re focused on broadly enabling low cost, mass production OLEDs with inkjet printing,” Madigan said. “What we’re working on now is a general deposition platform for putting down patterned films at high speed over large areas, realizing the full potential of inkjet technology for the display industry.”

In developing Kateeva’s YIELDJet, Madigan said they focused on how the glass would be handled, how to perform maintenance on a printer system that would be completely enclosed in a nitrogen environment, and managing particle decontamination.

YIELDJet employs a technique that floats a panel of glass on a vacuum and pressure holds, holding it at the very edge, which significantly reduces the size of the system when compared to conventional system which requires glass be moved on a large, often bulky holder. To address accessibility of their complicated system, Kateeva engineers made the system fully automated and able to recover quickly if it needed to be opened up to air.

“It was a new thing to make a printer that was low particle contaminating,” said Madigan. “In one of these printers, you have about ten thousand nozzles, to do fast coating.”

Kateeva was able to develop techniques to monitor all of these nozzles simultaneously, resulting in completely uniform coatings and films.

“The analysis that we’ve done with our customers is that, once they can move to inkjet printing, then you’ll quickly see OLED come down to cost parity and even be below LCD in cost,” Madigan concluded.

AMD today announced that its Board of Directors has appointed Board member John Caldwell as Chairman. Caldwell succeeds Bruce Claflin as Chairman of the Board. Claflin has been Chairman of the Board since March 2009 and will continue to serve as an AMD Board member.

“I am honored to be named chairman of AMD’s Board,” said John Caldwell. “It is an exciting time to be part of AMD as we execute on our transformative strategy — bringing innovative products to market and delivering increased value to our shareholders. On behalf of our Board of Directors, I would like to recognize Bruce Claflin for his leadership and for his continuing contribution to our company.”

Caldwell joined AMD’s Board in 2006 and has held a variety of Committee positions including most recently Compensation and Leadership Resources Committee Chair and Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee membership. Caldwell brings extensive board and executive level experience. In his career, he has served as a CEO of three technology companies and been on the board of seven public technology companies.

Research published in the journals Materials Today Communications and Scientific Reports has described how silver nanowires are proving to be the ideal material for flexible, touch-screen technologies while also exploring how the material can be manipulated to tune its performance for other applications. Currently, touch screen devices mainly rely on electrodes made from indium tin oxide (ITO), a material that is expensive to source, expensive to process and very brittle.

A team from the University of Surrey, led by Professor Alan Dalton and in collaboration with M-SOLV Ltd, a touch-sensor manufacturer based in Oxford, looked to alternative materials to overcome the challenges of ITO, which is suffering from supply uncertainty. Alternative materials investigated as ITO replacements have included graphene, carbon nanotubes and random metal nanowire films. This study showed how silver nanowire films have emerged as the strongest competitor, due to transmittances and conductivities which can match and readily exceed those of ITO. This is a material that consists of wires which are over a thousand times thinner than a human hair, that form an interconnected conductive network.

Matthew Large, the first author on the research published in Scientific Reports described the importance of these latest results. “Our research hasn’t just identified silver nanowires as a viable replacement touchscreen material, but has gone one step further in showing how a process called ‘ultrasonication’ can allow us to tailor performance capabilities. By applying high frequency sound energy to the material we can manipulate how long the nanosized ‘rods’ of silver are. This allows us to tune how transparent or how conductive our films are, which is vital for optimising these materials for future technologies like flexible solar cells and roll-able electronic displays.”

In a paper published last month in Materials Today Communications, the same team, showed how silver nanowires can be processed using the same laser ablation technique commonly used to manufacture ITO devices. Using this technique, the team produced a fully operating five inch multi-touch sensor, identical to those typically used in smartphone technology. They found it performed comparably to one based on ITO but used significantly less energy to produce.

“Not only does this flexible material perform very well, we have shown that it is a viable alternative to ITO in practical devices,” concluded Professor Dalton. “The fact we are able to produce devices using similar methods as currently in use, but in a less energy-intensive way is an exciting step towards flexible gadgets that do not just open the door for new applications, but do so in a much greener way.”

Maria Cann, a technologist from M-SOLV and first author on the Materials Today Communications paper added “”We are seeing a lot of interest from our customers in silver nanowire films as an ITO replacement in devices. This work is a really important step in establishing exactly which sensor designs can make good nanowire products. The fact that the nanowire films are processed by the same laser techniques as ITO makes the transition from ITO to nanowires really straightforward. It won’t be long before we are all using nanowires in our electronic devices. ”

The team, now based at the University of Sussex is now looking to develop the scalability of the process to make it more industrially viable. One limiting factor is the current cost of silver nanowires. Funded by Innovate UK and EPSRC, the team are collaborating with M-SOLV and a graphene supplier Thomas Swan to use a nanowire and graphene combination in the electrodes to markedly reduce the cost.

According to the latest research from Strategy Analytics, global smartphone shipments fell 3 percent annually to reach 335 million units in Q1 2016. It is the first time ever in history the global smartphone market has shrunk on an annualized basis. Samsung maintained first position with 24 percent global smartphone marketshare.

Linda Sui, Director at Strategy Analytics, said, “Global smartphone shipments fell 3 percent annually from 345.0 million units in Q1 2015 to 334.6 million in Q1 2016. It is the first time ever since the modern smartphone market began in 1996 that global shipments have shrunk on an annualized basis. Smartphone growth is slowing due to increasing penetration maturity in major markets like China and consumer caution about the future of the world economy.”

Neil Mawston, Executive Director at Strategy Analytics, added, “Samsung shipped 79.0 million smartphones worldwide in Q1 2016, dipping 4 percent annually from 82.7 million units in Q1 2015. Samsung maintained first position with 24 percent share for the quarter, broadly around the same level as a year ago. Samsung’s new Galaxy S7 flagship and its popular J series models are helping to hold steady its smartphone leadership. Apple fell 16 percent annually and shipped a disappointing 51.2 million smartphones worldwide in Q1 2016. Apple’s global smartphone marketshare has softened from 18 percent to 15 percent in the past year. Apple is facing iPhone fatigue and pressure is mounting for Apple to innovate a new wow design beyond its standard rectangle formfactor.”

Woody Oh, Director at Strategy Analytics, added, “Huawei maintained third position with 8 percent global smartphone marketshare in Q1 2016, up from 5 percent a year ago. Huawei grew 64 percent annually to ship an impressive 28.3 million smartphones worldwide in the quarter. Huawei is closing the gap on Apple, but Huawei itself is now being chased hard by ambitious rivals like OPPO and Vivo.”

Linda Sui, Director at Strategy Analytics, added, “OPPO shipped 15.5 million smartphones and soared to fourth position with 5 percent global smartphone marketshare in Q1 2016. OPPO has been well known in the smartphone industry for several years, but it is finally breaking into the wider public consciousness with its popular range of 4G models like the R9 across Asia and elsewhere. Xiaomi maintained fifth place with 4 percent global smartphone marketshare in Q1 2016. Xiaomi remains under pressure from OPPO, Vivo and others across Asia, while it is still very weak in North America and Western Europe and the vendor will need to target these regions more aggressively if it wants to catch Huawei and others in the future.”

Global Smartphone Vendor Shipments and Marketshare in Q1 20161

Global Smartphone Vendor Shipments (Millions of Units) Q1 ’15 Q1 ’16
Samsung 82.7 79.0
Apple 61.2 51.2
Huawei 17.3 28.3
OPPO 8.3 15.5
Xiaomi 14.9 14.6
Others 160.6 146.0
Total 345.0 334.6
Global Smartphone Vendor Marketshare (%) Q1 ’15 Q1 ’16
Samsung 24.0% 23.6%
Apple 17.7% 15.3%
Huawei 5.0% 8.5%
OPPO 2.4% 4.6%
Xiaomi 4.3% 4.4%
Others 46.6% 43.6%
Total 100.0% 100.0%
Total Growth: Year-over-Year (%) 21.1% -3.0%
Source: Strategy Analytics

The full report, Global Smartphone Shipments Fall 3 Percent in Q1 2016, is published by the Strategy Analytics Wireless Smartphone Strategies (WSS) service, details of which can be found here.