iPhone 5 carries Korean components

LG Display to see most benefit as iPhone parts supplier, analysts say


Apple’s iPhone 5 may have failed to meet high expectations worldwide as it failed to boast any particularly surprising innovative features.

Analysts are nonetheless coming out with rosy sales forecasts for Apple as the U.S. tech giant still has strongly loyal fans. Based on this, Korean components makers, especially LG Display, are also being highlighted as those that will benefit from supplying their parts for the smartphone.

LG Display’s main role in Apple’s iPhone 5 was providing in-cell touch LCD panels, which analysts said are far superior to Samsung’s AMOLED panels in terms of resolution, weight and width.

In-cell panels have been one of the contributing factors to making Apple’s new phone lighter and thinner than other smartphones. An in-cell display integrates capacitive touch sensors directly into the display circuitry, so it doesn’t require a separate touch digitizer layer.

Analysts expect that this will help LG Display make a turnaround in the third quarter of this year.

Besides LG Display, Japan Display and Sharp are reportedly among those that supplied in-cell display panels to Apple.

Apple has not completely excluded Samsung Electronics for memory chip components, contrary to earlier reports by local media.

Samsung declined to confirm if the U.S. company reduced orders from the Korean tech giant, which are battling each other at worldwide courts over smartphone patents and designs.

Apple has instead increased orders of NAND flash memory chips from SK Hynix, indicating that it is moving to gradually break off its relations with Samsung, analysts said. It also used Qualcomm’s Long Term Evolution chips.

Other memory chip suppliers include Toshiba and Elpida Memory.

The iPhone 5’s upgraded “A6” processor, which enhances central processing unit and graphic functions, has been supplied by Samsung, according to media reports.

Apple has an 18.8 percent market share in the global smartphone market, the second highest following Samsung’s 29.7 percent as of the end of the second quarter of this year, analysts said.

By Park Hyong-ki (hkp@heraldcorp.com)