Leading electronics brands are releasing their new consumer products as the peak third season arrived. Novel smartphones, tablets and wearables adopting innovative technologies continue to draw attention from the market.

However, the ongoing pandemic has led to global economy decline so that the most eye-catching flagship smartphones lose their edges as they are usually more expensive. People who used to go for the high-end products may now turn to mid-range or budget smartphone under such circumstance. As a result, iPhone SE, the mid-range product of Apple, led to an unexpected sales growth for the company, marking the increasing demands for cheaper option in the consumer electronics market.

(Image: Apple)

Unlike high-end smartphones that use OLED display, the main steam display technology for mid-range and budget products is LCD with backlight. Since smartphone brands are addressing mid-range and budget products and increasing product shipment, demands for backlight units (BLU) climbs. Along with increasing demands for laptops and tablets that also require BLU products, many LED companies thus reported strong business performance in the second quarter of 2020.

Taiwan’s LED package company Everlight and AOT both announced revenue growth for 2Q20. Everlight’s revenue in the second quarter increased by 8% YoY, the revenue of July also grew by 14.03% YoY. AOT reported booming orders as well. Its 2Q20 revenues climbed by 51.9% YoY. HC Semitek, the China-based chip supplier, also noted that BLU accounts for 25-30% of its revenue in June and 40% in July’s sales.