Global smartphone shipments picked up a bit in the last quarter of 2025, with IDC reporting a 2.3% year-over-year growth to about 336.3 million units shipped worldwide. That helped push the full-year total to around 1.26 billion units, up 1.9% from 2024. It wasn't explosive growth, but considering ongoing issues like storage chip shortages, tariffs messing with supply chains, and some economic pressures in various countries, the market showed pretty solid resilience.
The real story was the premium segment driving things forward. Consumers kept upgrading to higher-end phones, foldables did really well (especially Samsung's lineup), and a lot of people apparently pulled the trigger early on purchases because they expected prices to rise later. Apple and Samsung were the clear standouts among the top players - Apple grew 6.3% for the year (hitting a record high thanks to strong iPhone 17 sales, especially in China), and Samsung jumped 7.9%. Together they grabbed about 39% of the global market share (up from 37% the year before), showing how much the shift toward expensive, feature-packed devices is sticking.
In China specifically, things were flatter: Q4 shipments dipped 0.8% to roughly 75.78 million units, and the full year was down 0.6% to about 285 million. Huawei came out on top domestically for the year, followed by Apple, vivo, etc. Apple did great there with the iPhone 17 series (supply was way better than expected, and they even threw in some discounts on Pro models to keep momentum going). Local brands cut back on super-cheap models to protect margins amid rising component costs.
On the display side, while OLED is gaining ground fast in premium phones and tablets (with shipments expected to jump significantly in 2026), many mid-range and budget smartphones still rely heavily on LCD panels. Major LCD display suppliers and LCD manufacturers like BOE Technology, TCL CSOT, Innolux, AU Optronics, and Tianma continue to hold strong positions in this space, especially for cost-effective, large-volume production that keeps entry-level devices affordable.
Looking ahead, 2026 could get bumpy with those same chip shortages (including the glass cloth crunch we talked about earlier) potentially pushing costs up and slowing things down.
On a separate but related note, Guangzhou just released its big plan for building an "advanced manufacturing powerhouse" through 2035 (officially called the Guangzhou Plan for Accelerating the Construction of an Advanced Manufacturing Strong City, 2024-2035). The city is going all-in on new industrialization, aiming to double industrial added value by 2035 (which would basically double the overall economy too). They're focusing on a "12218" modern industry system: pushing fusion between advanced manufacturing and modern services, digitization + green transformation, etc.
One of the six big emerging pillar industries getting heavy emphasis is ultra-high-definition video and novel/new display technologies. The goal? Grow this sector to a 300 billion RMB scale by 2035 and turn Guangzhou into a legit "world display capital" with global competitiveness.
Key pushes in displays:
- Build on strengths like printed displays and ultra-high-speed UHD capture gear.
- Speed up breakthroughs in core parts: UHD SoC chips, data transmission chips, high-end CMOS image sensors.
- Pump support into next-gen tech: OLED, AMOLED, MicroLED, QLED, printed displays, quantum dots, flexible displays, graphene displays, and more - while still leveraging established LCD display suppliers for transitional and hybrid applications.
- In materials: Develop cadmium-free/lead-free high-performance quantum dots (red/green/blue), high-frequency circuit substrates, etc. They're targeting better QLED structures, improved photoelectric performance, and figuring out failure modes for longer-lasting devices.
- In VR/AR/interactive tech: Crack curved/foldable/flexible challenges, advance quantum dot/UHD/printed/flexible stuff, get ahead on laser/3D/MicroLED. Boost OLED panel manufacturing, UHD video equipment R&D and production. Also dive into MicroLED mass transfer, silicon-based OLED ultra-high res, heterogeneous computing chips - all to speed up smart glasses and VR/AR integration into industrial design, healthcare, architecture, geology, smart traffic, education, entertainment, etc.
Spatially, they're centering this on the eastern part of the city - Guangzhou Development Zone and Zengcheng Development Zone as twin cores - to create a full ecosystem from raw materials to panels to end products, all tied into "car-display-chip" synergies (linking with new energy vehicles, etc.).
This lines up nicely with the broader smartphone/display trends: as phones (and laptops, wearables) keep demanding better screens - higher res, flexible, power-efficient, quantum dot-enhanced - places like Guangzhou want to own more of that supply chain. With global premium phones growing and tech like MicroLED/OLED advancing, it's a smart bet for the city to go hard on this, while LCD manufacturers handle the steady demand in volume segments. If they pull it off, it could help ease some of those upstream bottlenecks we've seen lately. Exciting times for display tech fans!
