Study: AMOLED supply hurting Android, won't climb fast soon

[kjk]

http://www.electronista.com/articles...d.lcd.by.2014/

Tight supplies of AMOLED screens are having an impact on Android that could potentially go on for years to come, iSuppli said in a new estimate. Interest in Android phones with such displays, like the Droid Incredible and Nexus One, has put a squeeze on supply that has triggered delays both for the phones and other products. The situation has been made worse as Samsung, the dominant AMOLED supplier, can hoard AMOLEDs for phones like the Galaxy S at the expense of everyone else.

Sounds like AMOLED manufacturing really needs to scale up quickly-then again, there are worse problems to have than over-demand for your technology.

[=X=]

The title is a bit of an exaggeration. The AMOLED shortage supply is not hurting the Android market, it's hurting the "HTC" with their "HTC Incredible" phone.

Interesting how the article mentions the Samsung Galaxy uses Spuer AMOLED, but fails to mention that it is also an Android phone.

Also as a side note, there is some speculation that Samsung might be stiffing production in order to make sure they have ample supply for it's Super AMOLED and also holding production until the Galaxy ships latter this summer. (No facts behind this claim just good ol paranoia)

This delay has caused HTC has moved away from the AMOLED and go with the SONY's Super TFT LCD.


=X=

[kjk]

Originally Posted by =X=

Also as a side note, there is some speculation that Samsung might be stiffing production in order to make sure they have ample supply for it's Super AMOLED and also holding production until the Galaxy ships latter this summer. (No facts behind this claim just good ol paranoia)


=X=

I always found it odd when suppliers got into direct competition with their customers...has to be some cause of friction from time to time.

[=X=]

Yeah, it's usually based on how the cooperate structure. Some companies expect that all divisions work together to produce a uniform vision, some cooperates treat each division as an individual business.


So often times many divisions have to generate revenue in order to justify their existence and so they go out to external companies to generate sales.

And while I do agree with you, I guess I'm more surprised that a company such as HTC would build a flag ship product using a direct competitors technology and not expect Samsung to pull such a stunt.

(My feeling is they had a hunch and had some sort of backup plan with the SONY screens, which is why they where able get replacement parts so quickly)

[bwaldron]

Originally Posted by =X=

The title is a bit of an exaggeration. The AMOLED shortage supply is not hurting the Android market, it's hurting the "HTC" with their "HTC Incredible" phone.

Exactly.

I'm not a fan of the current AMOLED screens, anyway -- which I guess puts me in a minority.

[Crowl]

I think HTC probably underestimated both demand and samsung's eagerness for the mobile market.

As far as them using a competitor's product, samsung's own phones are mostly using the better super amoled screens so it would actually be in samsung's interest to sell a lesser version to htc as it would put their own models in a better light while making more profits for their screen division.

One thing I have never really got with most of these screens is what is the big deal with the ever higher resolution on these relatively small screens, it seems like a waste of battery life for nominal gain since there are limits to the size people will want things like text anyway.

[Lemurion]

I'm not a huge fan of the AMOLED screens either. Most of the current ones use a system called PenTile, which uses two sub-pixels per element rather than the usual three.

A standard LCD pixel has three sub-pixels: red, green, and blue.

A PenTile AMOLED pixel has either a double-wide red and a standard green sub-pixel, or a double-wide blue and a standard green sub-pixel. This works very well when displaying color images, such as photographs; but not as well when displaying text.

Because no one pixel contains all three colors, text loses some crispness; especially when compared to the Motorola Droid, which has a higher resolution to begin with.

AMOLED is great, but not the best option for everyone.

[pwjone1]

Originally Posted by Crowl

I think HTC probably underestimated both demand and samsung's eagerness for the mobile market.

As far as them using a competitor's product, samsung's own phones are mostly using the better super amoled screens so it would actually be in samsung's interest to sell a lesser version to htc as it would put their own models in a better light while making more profits for their screen division.

One thing I have never really got with most of these screens is what is the big deal with the ever higher resolution on these relatively small screens, it seems like a waste of battery life for nominal gain since there are limits to the size people will want things like text anyway.

As someone that has had both low and medium res smartphone screens, I can definitively say there's a world of difference, it's much more significant than one would guess until having used each for a while. And while there may be different power consumptions between different technologies, for a given technology, there's probably not a huge difference in power for different pixel counts, probably more a function of screen size and output brightness.

[Crowl]

I have actually used plenty of phones and while things as low rez as the cheaper blackberries are noticeable, once you get up to the hvga level of resolution I just don't notice major benefits on these smaller screens.