Move to metal casings for smartphones to benefit BYD Electronic, Ju Teng

Since Apple introduced an aluminium unibody design on the iPhone in 2012, few smartphone brands have followed suit by introducing metal casings for their flagship devices.

Analysts, however, predict a big transition this year. Many Chinese smartphone brands are expected to use metal casings to improve product design as competition intensifies on the mainland, the world's largest smartphone market, and overseas because of expanding adoption of 4G mobile network services.

"Using metal casings is a way for smartphone vendors to differentiate their premium and mid-priced models against stiff competition from a wide range of cheaper handsets that use plastic casings," Susanna Chui, an analyst at Cinda International, told the South China Morning Post.

"We expect to see rising metal adoption for non-Apple smartphone brands."

As a result, leading Hong Kong-listed casing providers BYD Electronic and Ju Teng International were poised to grow their share of the global smartphone metal casings market against the larger Taiwan-based companies that supply to Apple, Chui said.

She said leading Chinese brands such as Lenovo, Huawei Technologies, ZTE, Oppo Electronics and TCL were set to release new high-end and mid-market 4G smartphone models with metal or hybrid metal-and-plastic casings this year.