[THE INVESTOR] LG Display confirmed Friday that it will supply liquid-crystal displays to China’s hot-selling budget phone-maker Vivo for the first time.

“We have recently inked a deal with Vivo to supply LCDs,” said a LG Display spokesperson. 

The LCDs will be installed in Vivo’s new premium 5-inch range smartphone model that will be released in the first quarter of next year.

According to industry sources, the display manufacturer is also in talks with another Chinese budget phone-maker Oppo to supply it with LCDs.

LG Display shares opened nearly 4 percent higher in the morning, largely buoyed by the new supply deal.

Oppo and Vivo are fast capturing the market shares of its Chinese rivals Huawei and Xiaomi.

Oppo sold 180 million units of smartphones in China in the April-June period, taking up 16.2 percent of total smartphone sales in the market. The figure is the second largest after No. 1 Huawei’s 191 million units, or 17.2 percent of market share. Vivo came in third with 147 million units, a 13.2 percent share, during the cited period.

As for possible supply deals of organic light-emitting diode displays with Chinese handset makers, the LG Display official said “Nothing has yet been set regarding the OLED supply.”

The Korean firm is beefing up OLED productions for mobile devices, with aims to elevate production capacity by the first half of next year.

Global smartphone companies, including Chinese manufacturers, are increasingly adopting OLEDs in recent months, indicating an upcoming trend of OLED smartphones that boast a higher level of flexibility and power efficiency compared to conventional LCDs. 

By Kim Young-won (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)