Samsung Display Co. will supply its active mode organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) display panels to Russia-based smartphone maker Yota Devices, industry sources said Thursday, in a bid to find new sources of business to fill in the sales fall to its key buyer Samsung Electronics.
According to the sources, the YotaPhone 2, set to be released next month in Russia, will be equipped with the Samsung AMOLED display panel. The YotaPhone lineup has the industry's first dual-screen design, equipped with a Quad-HD display on the back.
Samsung Display, who has 98 percent share in the global AMOLED panel market for smartphones, had mostly supplied to Samsung Electronics, the world's top handset maker, partly from lack of inventory to sell to other firms.
AMOLED displays are mostly used in mobile phones and small-screen tablet computers as they consume less power and offer wider viewing angles and faster response times than liquid-crystal display panels.
Industry watchers said the latest move came as Samsung Electronics was losing ground in the past months in its competition with rising Chinese rivals, driving the display maker to hunt for other sources of profit and lower its dependence on the tech affiliate.
Samsung Electronics consumed 90 percent of AMOLED panels produced by the display maker in 2013, but the figure plunged to around 80 percent this year, industry sources said.
The YotaPhone debuted first internationally when Russian President Vladimir Putin gave it as a gift to Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit earlier this week in Beijing.
Chinese smartphone makers have emerged as potential threats to global smartphone brands, with Beijing-based Xiaomi Inc. taking up 5.6 percent of the world market to become No. 3 player, outpacing South Korea's LG Electronics Inc. that took up 5.2 percent. (Yonhap)
