China white-box handset vendors are seeing weakening shipments abroad as larger vendors expand their lineups of lower-priced handsets, which consequently is affecting related panel supply chains.

Brand vendors in China have been increasingly focused on expanding sales in markets abroad as local competition intensifies, and are using high-specification, low-priced units to gain market share.

The strategy is putting white-box vendors at a disadvantage and they are seeing sales weakening, which in turn is influencing the amount of orders they are putting into relative supply chains.

Panel makers are also struggling as they try to compete against other makers to provide low-priced solutions for such brand vendors, which many observers believe will cause various panel makers' performances to greatly decrease in 2015.