Samsung Display Co., a South Korean display maker, has added more Chinese tech firms to its client list to sell them smartphone AMOLEDs, a move seen as a strategy to rely less on its parent company, Samsung Electronics Co., which is suffering weak sales, industry sources said Tuesday.

The subsidiary of the world’s top handset maker, Samsung Electronics Co., has been selling 5.2-inch AMOLEDs to China’s Coolpad Group Ltd. for its flagship Dazen X7 debuted last month.

The X5 Max made by another Chinese handset manufacturer, Vivo Electronics Corp., is built with Samsung Display’s 5.5-inch AMOLED in the high-end lineup priced at $483.

AMOLED, or active-matrix organic light-emitting diode, is a type of display technology that generates light upon electrical activation. What makes it different from OLED is that it is filled with an array of thin-film transistors that can function as switches to control each pixel so that it consumes less energy.

South Korean display firms, led by Samsung Display and its rival LG Display Co., have pioneered AMOLED technology, but the high cost has been a drag in further market expansion. (Yonhap)