According to CINNO Research on April 15, the smartphone panel market is still under heavy pressure as we enter the second quarter of 2026. The difficult situation from the first quarter has basically continued.
Upstream memory prices keep rising, and bulk raw material costs are also going up. Because of this, phone brands have become even more cautious about placing orders. To fight for the limited orders that are available, panel makers and module factories are still using the "lower price for higher volume" strategy. As a result, prices across all types of panels are expected to keep falling.
Here's the breakdown by technology:
- a-Si
Major brands are buying less and less a-Si panels. Big manufacturers are trying to keep their lines running by pushing more shipments to the white-label market in South China. In the module stage, the low-price competition is still very intense. However, because upstream material costs have increased, module factories don't have as much room to keep cutting prices unilaterally. In April, the price drop for a-Si modules slowed down a bit. a-Si cell prices are still softening, but the decline is happening at a slower pace.
- LTPS
LTPS lines are actually running at relatively high utilization right now, thanks to strong demand from the automotive display market and new orders from refreshed laptops and tablets. In the smartphone segment, though, demand continues to shrink because of high memory costs. Prices for old projects remain fairly stable, but panel makers are actively offering better prices on new projects to win orders. Overall, LTPS panel prices still went down in April.
- AMOLED
Rigid AMOLED panels continued to see price drops in April due to pricing moves by major players. Flexible AMOLED is in even worse shape. Brands have cut back their purchases significantly, leaving many production lines running below capacity. To fill up the lines and protect their customer share, panel makers are giving more concessions during negotiations. Price competition is getting extremely fierce, and flexible AMOLED prices kept falling in April.
CINNO Research expects that in April and May 2026, both a-Si module prices and LTPS panel prices will likely continue to decline. AMOLED panel prices are also expected to stay on a downward trend.
