DisplaySearch

A new report by TV industry tracker NPD DisplaySearch says Ultra HD resolution LCD TV panels, the principal component in new UHD/4K TVs, will increase significantly in 2013.

The firm says the number will top out at 2.6 million by the end of the year, up from a paltry 63 thousand in 2012.

A summary of findings in its "Quarterly Large-Area TFT Panel Shipment Report" says five suppliers will be responsible for the growth in 4K LCD panels, feeding a number of TV brands worldwide. China will play a key role, and growth will be driven by sizes between 50 and 65 inches.

"4K×2K panel manufacturers' shipments are primarily focused on 50-inch, 55/58-inch, and 65-inch sizes, which are expected to have the highest volume shipments, especially in China," says David Hsieh, NPD DisplaySearch vice president, Greater China Market, in a statement.

To put the 2.6 million panel number in perspective, consider that DisplaySearch reported that shipments of all TV types totaled 237 million in 2012. The firm predicts flat demand for TVs worldwide in 2013.

If you're wondering about OLED, DisplaySearch says its 2013 volume will be significantly less than that of 4K -- just 50 thousand units worldwide in 2013.

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The venerable 9.7-inch iPad will get buried by the iPad Mini in 2013, NPD DisplaySearch said today in a research note.

If January is any indicator it could be a pretty sharp shift. Shipments of 9.7-inch tablet panels (iPad) "collapsed," falling to 1.3 million in January from 7.4 million a month earlier, DisplaySearch said.

But 7-inch and 7.9-inch (many of the latter are the iPad Mini) panel shipments grew to 14 million from 12 million in the same period.

And it will get pretty lopsided for the whole of 2013, DisplaySearch said.

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Market research firm DisplaySearch said the reduction in shipments of displays for the iPhone 5 -- which reflect shipments of the phone itself -- is real but that it doesn't necessarily mean the device's popularity is suffering.

"We started hearing indications of cutbacks before the new year," Paul Semenza, senior vice president, analyst services, at DisplaySearch, told CNET today.

That said, he doesn't exactly have a negative take on demand for the iPhone 5.

"It was a very quick ramp up. The Q4 [estimate] was originally about 61 million displays [for the iPhone 5]...… Read more

Only days after a report anticipating a surge in tablet shipments, it's official: Tablet display shipments topped laptops in October, said NPD DisplaySearch today.

"In a milestone for the global industry, in October tablet PC panel shipments exceeded those of notebook PC panels," NPD DisplaySearch said today in a research note.

Because display panel shipments are always the leading indicator for device shipments, "it can be seen that tablet PCs are threatening to overtake notebooks," DisplaySearch said.

So, is this a snapshot of the laptop in decline or just a fluke?

Here's how DisplaySearch … Read more

A 13-inch MacBook Pro with a Retina display is on track for production, according to an analyst at NPD DisplaySearch.

DisplaySearch analyst Richard Shim has been telling CNET for a while now that a 13.3-inch Retina version of the MacBook Pro (MBP) is slated for production in the fourth quarter. And today Shim reiterated that he sees no change in those production plans.

What's not clear is when Apple would release the new MacBook. Shim speculates that it would happen after the iPad Mini announcement -- which is expected to be released in the coming weeks -- though … Read more

The gears could start to turn as early as this month for the production of a smaller iPad.

Production of the 7.85-inch display slated for use on a smaller version of the iPad should begin in August, an analyst told CNET.

"We expect panel production to start in August, with production ramping up to high volumes (more than a million units per month) in the fourth quarter," said Paul Semenza, an analyst at NPD DisplaySearch, in response to an e-mail query.

Semenza said this is DisplaySearch's "understanding of the activity for the 7.85 [inch] … Read more

Apple's iPad helped catapult the company to the top of the mobile PC space last quarter, according to new data from NPD DisplaySearch.

The research firm revealed today that during the first quarter, Apple shipped 17.2 million mobile PCs worldwide, earning it 22.5 percent share of the market and jumping 118 percent year-over-year. Hewlett-Packard and Acer trailed with 11.6 percent and 9 percent market share, respectively. Lenovo and Dell rounded out the top five with 7.7 percent and 7.3 percent share.

NPD DisplaySearch, which defines mobile PCs as tablets, notebooks, and mini-notebooks, said total … Read more

Expect to see a lot of tablets milling about next year. Just don't expect to find Windows 8 on a lot of them.

Market researcher NPD DisplaySearch has upped its tablet forecast for 2013 to more than 180 million units, in a report released Thursday. That forecast, however, shows Windows 8 tablets having only a small impact through 2014.

DisplaySearch had previously pegged next year's tablet market at 168.9 million but now has revised that figure to 184.2 million.

And by 2017, the size of the market will jump to 424.9 million units, compared to … Read more

The new iPad's display is so avant-garde that Apple could have trouble keeping up with demand if it exceeds recent iPad 2 levels, according to a display analyst.

Cutting-edge tech: It's gratuitous at this point to say that the new iPad's 2,048x1,536 display is by any measure amazing--boasting a resolution typically found on large 24-inch class desktop displays.

Exactly how this is achieved is explained in a NPD DisplaySearch discussion about how Super High Aperture technology--by increasing aperture ratio--allows Apple to squeeze four times the number of pixels into the new display compared to the … Read more