The Rise of Chinese-made Smartphones Korean Screens Losing Popularity, Chinese Screens Becoming Flagship Standard?

Chinese-Made Smartphones on the Rise Decline of Korean Screens as Chinese Displays Become Leading Flagship Standard

【Mobile China】Smartphones are the symbol and necessity of the present era. They connect people with people, people with the world, and people with the future. In this field, domestic smartphones were once regarded as low-end, cheap, and counterfeit, while foreign brands occupied the advantages of high-end, expensive, and innovative.

However, in recent years, with the relentless efforts and continuous innovation of domestic smartphone manufacturers, this situation is undergoing a tremendous change. Domestic smartphones have not only gradually shed the label of being low-end and cheap but have also achieved brilliant achievements in the domestic market. At the same time, with their impressive overall strength and affordable prices, they have also demonstrated strong competitiveness in the international market.

The dual advantages of quality and price that domestic smartphones have attained are not only due to the efforts of domestic smartphone manufacturers themselves but also thanks to the increasingly mature support of the domestic supply chain. There was a time when many domestic smartphone manufacturers liked to promote Samsung screens as an important selling point because they were the industry benchmark and indisputable king. However, in recent years, with the rise of domestic screen suppliers such as BOE and China Star Optoelectronics, the focus of press conferences has also shifted to domestic screens. This situation has also occurred with smartphone glass. Corning Gorilla Glass, which once dominated the market for flagship smartphones, has been defeated in competition with domestic smartphone glass. Huawei’s Kunpeng glass is the most famous representative among them.

• New progress in the upgrade of HarmonyOS 4! 6 Honor models open public beta recruitment.
• OnePlus Li Jie Building high-end models is not just about having Snapdragon 8 Gen 3.
• WeChat Pay is undergoing internal testing for its business account. Official response has been received.

If screen panels and glass are not representative enough, the domestication process of high-precision components like smartphone CMOS and chips can better represent the development direction of domestic smartphone component localization. Even if we disregard the reborn Kirin chips, there have been many appearances of domestically developed chips in the fields of charging, gaming, and image processing chips. In the field of smartphone CMOS, Hawkeye, which used to only assist Sony, has also begun to emerge and become a new choice for many domestic flagship camera modules. As for smartphone motors and speakers, these inconspicuous small components can be said to be a reserved territory for domestic production. Today, the motors and speakers of most domestic smartphones are almost entirely supplied by AAC Technologies.

The rapid development of domestic smartphones cannot be achieved without the support and assistance of these domestic supply chains. In the face of the increasingly fierce international technological competition, the localization of smartphone components has become an important issue for smartphone manufacturers. This time, Mobile China will focus on the topic of “The rise of domestic smartphones” and depict the current development status of domestic smartphones. However, this article will mainly focus on “domestic smartphone screens”.

“Rise of domestic brands” is a term that many people often hear, and it applies to different industries and markets. Some manufacturers rise in a spectacular manner, while others rise silently and unknown, and domestic screen manufacturers belong to the latter. Unbeknownst to many, almost all domestic flagship models now extensively use high-quality domestic screens, while Korean screens seem to have fallen out of favor and into the “cold palace”.

In 2020, the chairman of Xiaomi Group, Lei Jun, held a Xiaomi 10th-anniversary speech at the Xiaomi headquarters in Beijing. In his speech, Lei Jun talked about the past of selecting screens for Xiaomi phones. In 2011, Xiaomi wanted to use Sharp screens on their phones, so they contacted senior officials of Sharp through various channels. In the end, Lei Jun and others even went to Japan at the risk of nuclear radiation for negotiations. Lei Jun’s speech revealed a glimpse of the supply chain of domestic phone screens more than a decade ago. At that time, Japanese and Korean manufacturers were absolute dominators in the market.

The name “Sharp” may be unfamiliar to today’s netizens, but this century-old Japanese company was once one of the screen industry’s dominators. They successfully developed the world’s first full-featured integrated (COS) electronic calculator using LCD displays and once held over half of the global screen market. However, the 2008 financial crisis and failed investment strategies led Sharp to lose its competitive position. At the same time, Sharp failed to seize the opportunity to transition to new display technologies such as LED backlight LCD screens and OLED, making it a casualty of the industry.

In contrast to Sharp, Korean screen manufacturers represented by Samsung and LG are still active in the industry today. Among them, Samsung deserves special mention. Currently, Samsung is the largest screen supplier for Apple’s smartphones. According to research firm Omdia, 82% of the screens for the iPhone 14 series models come from Samsung, 12% from LG, and only 6% from BOE. For the iPhone 15 series, 87% of the screens come from Samsung, 13% from LG, and BOE will not supply screens until the end of the year. Moreover, if domestic smartphones are equipped with 2K screens, Samsung is the best choice, as their diamond arrangement screens have inherent superiority in display quality.

iPhone 14 Screen Supply Ratio

However, in any industry and market, there are no everlasting dominators. Sharp, once dominant, and now Samsung are the same. Although Samsung still holds the top spot in global smartphone sales, the company is losing orders from Chinese smartphone manufacturers for its screens. Once upon a time, a 2K OLED screen from Samsung was a standard feature for flagship Android phones, but with the rise of domestic manufacturers, it seems that these days are now history.

In the past few decades, while overseas manufacturers dominated the market, the domestic screen industry was seeking its own opportunities for development. More than 20 years ago, when the entire mainland China was unable to independently produce a liquid crystal panel, BOE (Beijing Oriental Electronics) was born.

The newly established BOE focused on advanced liquid crystal display technology and semiconductor display industry. They seized the opportunity of the era when CRT technology was replaced on a large scale by LCD technology. From 1998, they invested heavily in TFT-LCD technology based on semiconductor technology. In 2002, BOE acquired Hyundai’s liquid crystal display business for $380 million and built the first 5th generation TFT-LCD production line in mainland China relying on independent technology the following year. Since then, Chinese screens have appeared on the world stage.

Similar to BOE, many other well-known domestic screen manufacturers such as Huaxing Optoelectronics and Visionox have also gradually developed step by step. In the early stages, these domestic manufacturers mainly relied on acquiring advanced technology from overseas manufacturers, and their products were mainly sold in entry-level markets. But through long-term development, they have also gradually accumulated strong technological capital. According to data from the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) as of 2021, China’s OLED screen patent ratio accounts for 26%, ranking second in the world. And according to BOE’s own data, their flexible OLED-related patent applications exceed 28,000.

Along with accumulating strong technology, these domestic screen manufacturers are also actively expanding cooperation with domestic smartphone manufacturers. For example, BOE and Huawei have had close cooperation, with BOE’s involvement in almost every screen supply for the Mate series. Xiaomi and Huaxing Optoelectronics have deepened their technological cooperation, and the jointly developed Huaxing C7 screen had the highest luminous efficiency in the world when it was launched and was applied to the Xiaomi 13 Ultra. OnePlus, known for not compromising, brought one of the world’s top 2K screens on the OnePlus 12, and the production manufacturer behind it is none other than BOE…

According to my incomplete statistics, among the domestically produced flagship models that have recently been released or are about to be released, the models that use domestically produced screens include Huawei Mate60 Pro, Huawei Mate X5, Honor Magic V2, OPPO Find N3, Xiaomi 14 series, and OnePlus 12. Although the screen supplier for the upcoming vivo X100 series is temporarily unavailable, the vivo X90 globally debuted with a BOE Q9 screen, so it is unlikely that domestically produced screens will be absent in the X100 series as well.

In fact, Samsung screens today have no technical or product issues, but domestic smartphone manufacturers obviously have their own considerations. A few years ago, a US ban caused Huawei’s smartphone sales to fall out of the global top ten from second place, clearly showing that the “stability” of Samsung screens is inferior to domestically produced screens in terms of “risk control.” Compared to companies like Samsung and Qualcomm, which directly participate in the smartphone market and compete directly with Xiaomi, OPPO, and others, although domestic smartphone manufacturers using Samsung screens can’t be considered “aiding the enemy,” once they have other options, the decline in Samsung screens is only a matter of time.

On the other hand, the “competitive spirit” of domestically produced screens is also an important factor affecting the decisions of smartphone manufacturers. Although Samsung screens have excellent display quality, domestically produced screens have found their own unique track. From 1.5K resolution to high-frequency PWM dimming, from luminous efficiency to lifespan, domestically produced screens have won more orders for themselves in the market competition with their differentiated advantages. The current 1.5K domestically produced OLED screens have greatly squeezed the market space for 1080P Samsung screens, and with the support of Xiaomi and vivo, OnePlus has also started using “BOE screens.” The market position of 2K Samsung screens seems to be “shaky.”

Looking at the current trend, the proportion of domestically produced screens used in domestic flagship smartphones will only continue to increase. Especially in the high-end market, Huawei has brought domestically produced screens to models priced above 10,000 yuan, and OnePlus 12’s “BOE screens” represent that domestically produced screens have finally gained recognition from this “uncompromising” manufacturer. The future where domestically produced screens become the standard for domestic flagship smartphones is within reach.

We will continue to update Phone&Auto; if you have any questions or suggestions, please contact us!