South Korea's LG Display Co. emerged as the No. 2 provider of display panels to U.S. tech giant Apple Inc. in the first quarter, moving a notch up from a year earlier, data showed Wednesday.

The South Korean firm was responsible for 34.5 percent of the combined iPhone display panel shipments in the January-March period of 2015, up from the 28.8 percent posted last year, when it was the No. 3 provider, according to the data compiled by DisplaySearch.

Japan Display Inc. was the No. 1 panel supplier to Apple in the first quarter with 35.9 percent, relegating Sharp Corp., another Japanese firm, to the third spot.

Sharp was the No. 1 supplier with a share of 38.8 percent in the first quarter of 2014, followed by JDI with 32.4 percent, but Sharp's presence fell to 29.6 percent in the first quarter this year.

LG Display, however, was the most Apple-dependent firm among the three, with 74.7 percent of its smartphone panels heading to the U.S. tech giant in the first quarter. Its sister LG Electronics Inc. accounted for 19.4 percent, followed by Microsoft Corp. with 1.5 percent.

In contrast, only 47 percent of JDI's shipment of panels was sold to Apple, with China-based Huawei and Xiamoi taking up 10.5 percent and 9 percent, respectively.

Apple took up 63.4 percent of Sharp's shipment of panels over the cited period, trailed by Xiaomi with 19.9 percent. (Yonhap)