July 9, 2007
With the Apple iPhone slated to hit the market at the end of June, the market for small and medium size LCD panels is growing, and Taiwan manufacturers are anticipating higher demand.
While the German company Balda is reportedly serving as Apple's main supplier of touchscreens for the iPhone, two Taiwanese companies, AUO and Innolux, have been chosen as secondary suppliers, according to the Economic Daily News.
Hsiung Hui, Vice-President at AUO, one of Taiwan's top flat panel manufacturers, already has an
R&D team devoted to developing a non-traditional, resistive LCD touchscreen panel -- the same type the iPhone uses. AUO plans to sell its screen in the latter half of this year, said Xiong.
EDN also reports that local manufacturers Innolux and Hannstar are also developing touchscreens, as both companies anticipate great demand for small and medium sized screens for mobile phones.
Innolux is also hoping to fall into Apple's view as a touchscreen supplier through its parent company, the manufacturing giant Hon Hai Precision, which is manufacturing the iPhone for Apple. Innolux has also been actively developing a capacitive touchscreen, which is already at the production phase.
Hsiung Hui noted that capacitive touchscreens are already in demand, as the iPhone is about to hit the market. However, two problems must be solved -- patents, and the fact that the touchscreen currently used by the iPhone is still not mature as a technology, said Hsiung.
Small and medium sized screens for mobile phones will experience the highest growth among AUO's products, said Hsiung, who added that AUO's market share and shipment volume are now comparable to its counterparts in Korea and Japan. This is mainly due to manufacturers switching from STN (Super Twisted Nematic) to TFT (Thin Film Transistor) screens, said Hsiung.
Because of the growing market penetration of TFT, Innolux's shipments of small and medium sized screens are expected to grow by 50% over last year, with profits growing even higher than 50%, said Innolux General Manager Duan Hsing-chien.
HannStar Vice President Chin-hao Chou said that Hannstar is currently developing mobile phone panels, but taking a different approach -- its screens are non-capacitive, with the touchscreen functions performed directly on the TFT screen. Hannstar is already at full capacity, producing volume over 50,000 screens for 3G mobile phones, and cannot fill all of the orders it has received.
With the iPhone in the picture, the future supply of mobile phone screens may be slim for some time to come -- Hsiung Hui noted that medium sized panels for digital photo frames are selling well, and are eating into production capacity of small and medium sized screens. Production capacity for small and medium panel is lacking in Japan, which has created a shortage for suppliers in Taiwan, according to Hsiung.
(Economic Daily News)
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