Philips sets industry record with one billion mobile display shipments

Royal Philips Electronics today announced that it had set an industry record with the shipment of one billion mobile displays. Mobile Display Systems (MDS), a business unit within Philips Semiconductors, customizes display technologies for OEMs in the telecommunications, automotive and avionics markets.
Philips manufactures cutting edge technology such as the new Nexperia Mobile Display Module, a compact, plug-and-play display solution for camera phones. Based on Gartner Group’s mobile phone shipment reports (2002 and 2003) and Philips internal shipment data, one in four mobile phones contains a Philips mobile display.

Mr. Harold Hoskens, the chief executive officer of Philips MDS, said that the rapid growth in mobile displays is directly linked with the surge of mobile telecommunications since the early 1990s.

“We are delighted to set an industry record and ship our first billion mobile displays. We have achieved this milestone in record time with the phenomenal growth and advancement of mobile telecommunications in the past decade,” Mr. Hoskens said.

“Philips MDS is a pioneer in developing leading technologies for high resolution mobile displays and has maintained our market leadership position by enabling the transition from monochrome to color technologies.”

According to Mr. Barry Young, vice president and CFO of research analyst firm DisplaySearch, Philips is not only the market leader in volume but also leads the industry in innovation and design.

“Philips MDS has been able to meet the burgeoning demand for displays in the mobile telephone sector by setting up high volume manufacturing facilities in China to be close to its customer base. However, it is with its state-of-the-art R&D facilities in Shanghai that it has been able to transform mobile telephony from simple, single-line imagery to advanced display screens with high resolution and color performance,” Mr. Young said.

“With the technology shift from passive to active matrix LCD and growing end-user demand for high quality displays for streaming multimedia on mobile phones, I anticipate that Philips will grow faster than the market in value terms.”

Mr. Young said that based on Philips MDS current projections of volume sales and market growth for telecommunications, automotive and avionics, he estimates that Philips MDS will achieve its second billion mobile displays within the next six to seven years.

“The display is taking more of a central role in the mobile phone as it is very much the face of the product. As mobile devices are being used more and more for services besides simple phone calls, the display on a mobile device is the key element of the man-machine interface,” Mr. Hoskens said.

“Our research indicates that telecom will continue to be the biggest growth area for mobile displays and will double in value and volume over the next four years mainly fueled by the transition from passive matrix to active matrix. Philips MDS is at the forefront of technology advancements and is well positioned to lead the industry to meet growing end-user demand for greater access to information through the display screen.”